Congratulations go to Tuesday’s victors

Congratulations to the winners, and in some cases, the survivors, of Tuesday’s primary elections in Worcester County. For them, the race is over and the contest is won.

Facing no opposition in the general election this fall, these victors from Tuesday will begin serving on the Worcester County Board of County Commissioners in December: Steve Green from District 4, Lou Taylor of District 6, Roxie Dennis in District 2, Eric Fiori from District 3 and Caryn Abbott in District 1.

For Joe Schanno in District 5 and Joe Mitrecic in District 7, the finals in their contests won’t take place until the first Tuesday in November.

Republican Schanno will face Democrat Vicky Wallace in that contest. Mitrecic has no competition but must stand for election to make it official since he was unopposed in the primary.

What is official regardless of November’s election results is the welcome demise of the misguided four-member commissioner majority that seemed to pride itself on sticking it to the board of education at budget time every year.

Its end was almost guaranteed when Commissioner Jim Bunting decided not to seek reelection after serving four terms beginning in 2010. His decision to step down allowed Taylor to step up and, facing lesser-known opposition, bust up that anti-education core group.

Meanwhile, Green knocked off Elder to lock up the District Four seat and Schanno appears poised to give long-suffering Commissioner Mitrecic a clique-free board to work with as they take — we hope — a kinder, more reasoned approach to covering the cost of education in the county.

Tuesday’s election also should deliver a big change in style at the county government level. A more low-key approach to doing business with the communities should prove fruitful, considering that the adversarial style of the past four years caused as many problems as it solved.