The Campaign that Almost Was
From time to time people ask me if I plan on running for local office again. I have been encouraged to do so, and I hear that my name does come up once in awhile. This is both flattering and a little bit gratifying. I had a lot of fun running for the County Commission back in 2002, and I learned a lot by doing it. It’s nice to know that I have some residual fan base out there. It makes up for the people who have canceled appointments with me because of things I have blogged about.
Next year, on March 16 to be exact, Gainesville is having an election for Mayor, and I have to admit that I was tempted. I am deeply dissatisfied with our city government. The candidates who have signed up thus far leave me nonplussed on a good day. I feel like I am suffering from taxation without representation, and I want to do something about it. However, there is one thing that I learned from 2002 that is even more applicable than it was then: running for public office is costly, and I am not talking about campaign costs. I am self-employed, and in 2002, even though I still worked full time while campaigning for 10 months, I completely lost focus on my business and I had a huge shortfall that year. Last year, when the bottom fell out of the housing market and the stock market was in the tank, was the first time ever, in 28 years, that my business actually lost money. I am still digging myself out of that hole, so this is a bad time for me to be a candidate.
Back in 2004, in order to stay involved in local politics and supply some service to the people who run in local races, I started a website that would make it convenient for voters to find the candidates all in one place. I also contacted candidates and told them I would give them all the space they wanted on that site for free. I took pictures, went to forums, and reported on what happened on that site. It was time consuming, but cheap to do. And it didn’t hurt my business, because doing this was nothing like being a candidate.
Over the past several years there have been two big disappointments. One is that candidates don’t really use Alachua Voter Guide in any meaningful way. They just think this is my blog, and they hope I will write favorably about them. The fact is, I DON’T WANT TO WRITE ABOUT THEM AT ALL! I have offered them all a username and password and begged them to blog here themselves. I only write what I do because they don’t write at all. The second disappointment is that voters just don’t care about local candidates and what their local officials are up to. On election day, local races are an afterthought. People come out in pretty good numbers to vote for or against someone they either love or hate at the top of the ballot, and most everything else is voting in the dark. Our city commission races, which seldom have the big races as a drawing card, usually get only a 12-15% voter turnout. It’s only different when the vote coincides with a presidential preference primary. Then it zooms up to 30%. This past primary was different because of the hyped Obama candidacy. That gave us a staggering 46% turnout. All of which is still pathetic.
Although I will not be a candidate in the near future, I will still be pouring my free time into Alachua Voter Guide. But frustration with our local government AND voter apathy has made me realize I have to amp up my own writing. I believe that I must care a lot more than the candidates do about outreach, because they seem to be content with fighting over the same pool of voters who make up that 12% of the electorate who care enough to pay attention. More people must pay attention.
I believe that we have a democratic process for two reasons. One is to choose people who will represent our interest. The other is to get rid of them when they fail to do so. If there is no accountability, we may as well appoint them as commissars for life and just be good little drones and do whatever they tell us. I am afraid that too many of us already have that role down cold.
Stay tuned. It’s nest-whacking time…
