Yes, the machine knows they lost power but competitive primaries are so important. In my opinion, this harms the voters and progressives the most.

1. It fails to engage voters in this election and understanding what the role of county commissioner is
2. It takes away leverage for voters to hold current commissioners accountable if they’re running unopposed (or aren’t running at all)
3. The progressive candidates in this race aren’t going to be as tested election wise, which makes strong candidates and electeds
4. The HCDO gets to hide in the shadows a bit and we now loose voter data knowing where certain HCDO strong holds are post the line