This is most likely a case of preaching to the choir
– anyone who bothers to pick up a newspaper to seek out and
understand local issues will also bother to vote. Perhaps if we
screamed extra large type across the front page declaring scandal
in American Idol voting, and then bait and switch with a story on
what’s at stake in local elections, we mig
ht add a voter or two to the ranks.
This is most likely a case of preaching to the choir – anyone who bothers to pick up a newspaper to seek out and understand local issues will also bother to vote. Perhaps if we screamed extra large type across the front page declaring scandal in American Idol voting, and then bait and switch with a story on what’s at stake in local elections, we might add a voter or two to the ranks.
Unlikely. Seemingly every election cycle fewer people bother to vote. In California the percentage of people who stayed home on election day mirrors the percentage of people who vote in South Africa – 80 percent. What does it say about our democracy when politicians are making decisions about our own and our children’s future when they only answer to one in three of us?
But rather than chastise registered voters who didn’t vote, perhaps we should try a novel approach and try a little empathy. They are being asked to cast votes that reward corruption, cronyism and simple ineptitude. What role models do they see? Duke Cunningham, Richard Pombo, Tom DeLay and William Jefferson. You might ask who are the smart ones, voters or the cynical majority?
San Benito County politics, yet again, were straight out of a rural Mississippi election playbook: back-slappin,’ back-room dealin,’ mud slingin’ small minds that grit their teeth and head to the gutter to scrape up intrigue.
Except it backfired. Most candidates linked to sleazy campaign tactics – or even alleged extortion in the case of Los Valientes – were soundly pummeled in San Benito County. In the down and dirtier-by-the moment district attorney’s race, the candidate that stood above the slingin’ – Candice Hooper – trounced her competition.
If Reb Monaco is as smart as he appears to be, he will distance himself from those who orchestrated a hit piece riddled with half-truths and a few outright falsehoods against Tracie Cone, Monaco’s competitor in the District 4 supervisorial runoff in November. If the ham-handed attempts rise again, candidates should immediately and with no ambiguity, denounce not only the hit pieces, but the smarmy men and women behind them.
Supervisors have an opportunity to form a campaign ethics board that monitors elections and can step in with some serious teeth, say, a few thousand bucks per infraction, should the good ol’ boys forget this ain’t Mississippi.
We hope what the voters said – or did not say – sends a clear message to Supervisors and other elected officials that it’s time for a change. Dirty politics as usual won’t be tolerated in San Benito County.
