Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder, a Democrat, scored a big win in the general election, out-polling his Republican challenger by more than 35 percentage points.
It had to be the strongest showing by any Democrat in Northwest Arkansas. Most Democrats lost their races, as only a few eked out wins in this Republican-heavy corner.
Helder was running against a relatively unknown Republican, Mort Marshall. But lots of relatively unknown Republicans overwhelmed Democrats at all levels in Arkansas' recent elections.
Helder's win was particularly notable in that it was in Washington County, where longtime County Judge Marilyn Edwards, also a Democrat, won by a comparative whisker. Just 1.7 percent of the vote separated her from Republican challenger, Jeff Williams.
Williams is the county tax assessor now and gambled on a move up the ladder in county government. He came close to winning that bet, picking up more votes than Edwards in a slight majority of the county's precincts, including those in Springdale. But Edwards won Fayetteville and enough precincts in the rest of the county to take the race, 27,141 to Williams' 26,232. That's a 909-vote difference among more than 53,000.
By comparison, Helder's win was 36,165 to Marshall's 17,131, or a margin of more than 19,000 votes.
Those Democratic wins stand out because Republicans continue to gain strength in Washington County, as they long have in Benton County.
Republicans will hold five of Washington County's eight countywide offices in 2015.
Of six contested Quorum Court races in Washington County, Republicans won four last week. The two Democrats who secured seats will be among just five Democrats on the Republican-dominated 15-member court next year.
The story here is that a popular Democrat can still win a local election in Washington County, but the environment has certainly changed. The safe presumption may be that a generic Republican candidate will in the future have a better chance than a generic Democrat, even in local races.
That's the way local politics have long been in Benton County, where many people who consider themselves to be better aligned with Democratic Party values simply switched to Republican ranks because that's where local races are decided. If they wanted a voice in local races, they had to vote in the Republican primary.
Washington County is teetering at that point in its politics. Republicanism has been gaining ground into the county for the last couple of decades, at least so far as state and national politics is concerned. The question now is how deep is the reach.
Watch carefully in two years to see which alignment potential local candidates choose, whether they run as Democrats or Republicans.
Benton County saw some lifelong Democrats surface as Republican candidates during that county's transition. The shift was less about ideology and more about practicality at first. Today, it is about both.
Statewide and federal election results illustrate that conclusion. Examine vote margins in the U.S. Senate race, for example, and Republican dominance is clear.
Statewide, Democrat Mark Pryor prevailed in only 13 of the state's 75 counties. The rest went for Republican Tom Cotton, who got 56.5 percent of the statewide vote.
Now look at the local numbers.
Benton County had one -- one -- precinct in which Pryor got more votes than Cotton. And that margin was a whopping six votes. Every other precinct in Benton County was recorded as a win for Cotton, who got 67.3 percent of the county vote.
Cotton's margin in Washington County was somewhat less but nonetheless significant. He received just over 54 percent of the vote, winning everywhere but Fayetteville.
The Fayetteville precincts (or almost all of them) consistently went to Democratic candidates but the rest of Washington County, including Springdale, consistently went to Republicans seeking federal or statewide office.
The exception was the 3rd Congressional District race, in which Republican Steve Womack, the incumbent, won all but 16 Washington County precincts. There was no Democrat in the race, but Libertarian Grant Brand either tied or won in that smattering of precincts, most of which were in Fayetteville.
Womack, who received 79.4 percent of the districtwide vote, swept all 10 counties in the district and almost all the precincts. He actually swept all precincts in most of the counties in his re-election bid.
The popularity of Republicans among statewide candidates reflected much the same base of support as for Cotton.
Benton County voters in all but one precinct favored the Republican candidate for each of the statewide offices. That one precinct gave Democrat Nate Steel a seven-vote edge over Republican Leslie Rutledge for attorney general.
In Washington County, Rutledge narrowly beat out Steel but all the other statewide races went easily to Republican candidates.
Any way you look at the numbers, this was a game-changing election with ramifications in local government as well as at the state and national levels.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.
Commentary on 11/15/2014