Durham County Republicans were on the losing side in the Nov. 8 transit-tax referendum, but GOP precinct chairman Dick Ford sees silver linings in the cloud.

Writing in the county party's newsletter this week, Ford points out that the transit tax's margin of victory, 60-40, was smaller than the favorable margin it showed in a March poll. In rounded numbers, the poll found 60 percent favoring the tax and 34 percent opposed (7 percent had no opinion).

By Ford's reckoning, the election returns demonstrate a margin of 20 percentage points, down from the 26-point margin in March. "With a guerilla campaign that did not get started until October, we increased our vote by 20 percent," he writes.

Ford also points out that while Democratic presidential candidates have averaged taking 70+ percent of the Durham County vote in the past two elections, the transit tax, at 60 percent, "lost over 10 percent of their natural base."

Vincent Allison and Susan Ross, who led the Durham Transit Tax Referendum Committee, and Triangle Transit released formal comments soon after unofficial returns showed the half-cent sales tax winning approval.

"This is a great win for Durham, and the first step in what we hope will become a positive movement throughout the Triangle for an integrated transit system to serve all of our residents and workers," Allison and Ross said.

"Durham has truly led the way in this important initiative and all of Durham should be proud of that leadership."

In a statement issued by spokesman Brad Schulz, Triangle Transit called Durham's vote "a positive step to fund expanded transit options" and a "vote of confidence" in plans for a regional transit system.

"We look forward to continuing the important partnership that will be needed to move forward as we provide the most effective transportation alternatives for Durham and the Triangle's growing population," the agency said.

Mayor Bill Bell took a few minutes of Monday's city council meeting to plug the sales-tax proposals on today's Durham County ballots.

"We have two very important referendums," he said, referring to the half-cent tax for public transit and quarter-cent tax for education. The city council has endorsed both.

Bell has been a strong proponent of a unified transit system serving Durham, Wake and Orange counties. Much of the revenue from the transit tax is for Durham's portions of passenger-rail lines between downtown Durham and UNC Hospitals and eastern Wake County, as well as expanded bus service.

"Hopefully, we will set the pace for other counties to follow," Bell said, before showing a seven-minute video depicting successes for a 10-mile light-rail line in Mecklenburg County.

"It really highlights the attributes of the system in Charlotte," Bell said. "Similar to what will happen if the referendum is supported in Durham."

The Chamber of Commerce is taking a big role in promoting the half-cent transit sales tax that Durham County voters will decide on Nov. 8.

"We have been very, very busy in the ranks and files," Chamber CEO Casey Steinbacher (at right) said this morning in a meeting of City Council and County Board of County Commissioners members.

City Councilman Mike Woodard said Steinbacher has been spending a lot of her working time on the transit-tax campaign and the Chamber's public policy director, John White, is working on it full time.

Steinbacher spoke in place of campaign chairs Vincent Allison and Susan Ross, who did not attend the meeting. Transit-tax promoters have been raising money, planning strategy and arranged 72 presentations to community organizations, she said.

"We're a very grassroots community," Steinbacher said. "As long as we're able to get in front of those community groups, neighborhood groups with the message, we've got a good shot" at winning voter approval.

Intense campaigning won't start until after the Oct. 11 primary election in Durham's mayor and City Council races, she said.

The proposed sales tax would pay for expanded bus service and a light-rail line from N.C. 54 to downtown Durham.