All Politics is Local

And other rules of the game…
by Charlie Leck

Now, the big national election is over. So, it’s time for a political junkie to take a break. Right?

Wrong!

Ten months from now we’ll have a very important local election here in my town. This is where one really feels the startling impact of politics – right here at the local level. Things are not very good here, at that level, right now. As a matter of fact, they kind of stink to high heaven.

Here’s a good indicator of the problem. Our city depends on capable citizens to fill its elective and appointed positions. Right now there are openings on our Parks and Trails Commission and we can’t get one single person to volunteer to serve.

Our Planning Commission also had a recent opening. The elected City Council usually gets a number of volunteers to choose from for a position like that. This time, only one person offered to sit on that commission.

This is not a good situation. As a matter of fact, it’s a very bad circumstance.

A major part of the problem is that we’ve got a stinking bad City Council right now. There are three cowboys serving on the council who rule fiercely and reign proudly as libertarians. They get recommendations from their Planning Commission – recommendations upon which there have been hearings and to which that Commission has given serious thought – and the elected Council all too frequently dismisses those recommendations and rules otherwise. That sets a bad tone. It gets Planning Commissioners disappointed and angry. This is why it’s difficult to get people to serve.

These three cowboys also make the atmosphere at meetings pretty unsettling. They’re loud and rude and pretty much stifle discussion. They aren't open to opinions that disagree with their own and they discourage public comment. That’s no way to run local politics!

In addition, we have extremely bad communications with neighboring cities right now. That’s too bad. We were formerly pretty good at that. However, these cowboy City Council members are arrogant and rude and closed minded. One can’t communicate with a closed-minded person. One of the rules of good communications is to be open-minded.

We’ve got a good Mayor in my town, but his hands are tied right now. For years he’s had wonderful relationships with surrounding communities. The ruling cowboys have made the Mayor pretty powerless in terms of working with our neighbors.

This is local politics at its worst. As the famous Tip O’Neill pointed out, this is where politics is most important because this is where we who live in this town feel the impact of poor decisions.

So, we’ve got to get things squared away here. We need some gentlemen and ladies to serve our city. Be gone with the cowboys! We have the opportunity to get rid of one of them this fall anyway! We need bright, polite, open and considerate men and women to step forward as candidates.

We must find some willing folks right away and then we have to step up and support them with all our might.
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O’Neill, Tip: All Politics is Local, And other rules of the game [1994 Times Books, NY, 1993]

ILL ON ELECTION DAY

More than one disease is at work on me today!
by Charlie Leck

I've voted. It's always a good feeling. Talk about freedom and how our Republic is supposed to work! This is it, isn't it? Cast your vote or keep your mouth shut. I've always believed that one forfeits one's real right to complain and bitch if one fails to vote.

There were only a few of us waiting for the starting gates to open this morning. We stood around in the hallway of our City Center, bantering and joking with each other even though we were people with big differences of opinion on that particular morning. If a fellow is expressing his political difference of opinion through the ballot box, I'll give him my respect.

I'm baffled, however, by small town elections like this one we just went through in My Town. The campaign is limited to only a couple of communications tools. (1) The local, weekly newspaper runs profiles on the candidates and allows them a certain amount of space to express their opinions on various issues. They also accept letters from residents expressing their opinions about the candidates. (2) The candidates and some residents send out letters trying to convince voters to go one way or the other. It's this second tool that bothers me and I'll rant about it here in just a paragraph or two.

First, however, I'd like to lament the disappearance of the public candidate debate. That's something we used to do out here. The state's League of Women Voters used to help us set them up. They were willing to do that this year, too, but most of the candidates weren't interested. I'll keep urging My Town to reinstate these debates in future years.

I do not lament the passing away of the lawn sign. There were only a handful in use this year around the community and most of those were not really placed on the private lawns of residents, but they were put on highway right-of-way areas where they are technically illegal. The tool is used only to increase name recognition and, of course, they have nothing to do with positions on issues or the qualifications to serve.

The problem with the letters that candidates send out relates mainly to the fact that they arrive on the last few days of the campaign. Sometimes these letters are crammed with half-truths, out and out untruths and, sometimes, with vicious, intentional lies designed to frighten residents into voting against someone rather than for someone. One of our candidates engaged in such distasteful tactics this year and, I am deeply afraid, he may get many, many votes as a result of the tactic. Let me give you some examples.

The candidate in question here wrote about expenditures on a small community park as a cause of increased taxes on our residents. In fact, parks and playground expenditures are separately funded through park dedication fees collected when individual parcels of property are subdivided or developed. This candidate wrote that a million dollar expenditure was planned by My Town on this community park, insinuating that this would unfairly add tax requirements on all of us. First of all, as I just explained, such expenditures would come from park dedication fees that have already been collected. Secondly, in fact, no such expenditure is expected and no such expenditure has been recommended by the Parks Commission or any other Commission or Council in My Town.

When this misstatement, misinformation or lie arrives in a person's mailbox two days before the election, however, how is another candidate or another citizen to respond in time to rebut the claim?

This same candidate slung a slew of other such misinformation in his letter. He was following the standard belief that some of this mud would stick to the wall. He claimed that a million dollar addition was planned for the city center and he asserted that the city planned to hire 5 new employees. It is patently unfair that such falsehoods can't be answered properly before the election takes place.

After we cast our ballot this morning, a few of us chatted about whether or not a charge of unfair campaign practices could stand up against such a candidate. I suppose all he has to do is act dumb and contend that he had "heard" these things. In fact, candidates should be held more accountable for such errors. I think stronger state laws should demand a higher standard from candidates for office and offer criminal penalties for violations.

Sadly, I must now wait through the day to see if these vinegary campaign tactics worked. If they do, it will be a sad day for My Town and for its future. If this guy is elected, I will dedicate the next several years to following every action and every public statement he makes and reporting accurately on them to the entire community.

I visited with the staff in a medical emergency room yesterday. I was completely sapped. It turned out that I've got a touch of pneumonia and they put me on some pretty strong antibiotics and told me to put down lots of liquids and get rest. I'm ill this morning, but I'm not sure it's the pneumonia that's got me down.

NOTE [6 November 2007]: The local election results are in. The mayoral candidate we wanted elected managed to win by a good-sized margin over the fellow we write about above. That's fortunate; however, the City Councilperson we so very much wanted elected was not, losing in a three person race for two seats. The balance on the current council does not look good and I think it spells a major change for this community we have worked so hard to preserve. Our days of living in a rural community will be over in the next few years.

All Politics is Local

Burning the candle at both ends
by Charlie Leck

This coming Tuesday, many local communities around the nation will be holding elections. The polling places will be open and waiting for you. For goodness sake, I hope you will be voting. If you don't, I think you sacrifice the right to complain about virtually anything involving government. And, I will personally be very disappointed in you.

For it is at this local level, as the extraordinary Congressman from Massachusetts used to like to say, that all politics begins. And the great Tip O'Neil had it absolutely right!

That's why you'll only be getting these very brief blogs until after Tuesday. I was up the last few nights, burning the candle at both ends. I'm worn down and out. There is a real battle in our little town and many of us consider it one in which good guys are pitted against bad guys. The beauty and peacefulness of our gloriously rural community is at stake. We'll have to keep battling until the very last moment.

I'll vote very early on Tuesday morning and then rest up. If it's nice on Tuesday, I'll play a round of golf. After that, you'll start getting some much more significant blogs from me.

Be sure to vote!