Local Elections or Party Machine= Communism

[Tamaroa]

How did your local elections go? I have a real problem with the way mine went here in good ol' Rockland!! Out of about 14 different positions up for election, NINE (9) were unopposed. Not only that but one guy was on the democratic, republican, conservative AND working Families party tickets. Now please tell me that there is not a problem with this!!! I took several minutes in the voting booth before I decided what to do. I did not vote at all where there were the same peole running on that range of parties. I only voted for those where there was a true choice.

Can anyone honestly tell me here how a democratic society benefits if a person is permitted to place himself unopposed on ALL the parties slates? I am a moderate with conservative leanings. I tend to vote Republican but I take pride in voting for the person and not the party hence I swing Democratic on occasion. What do you do when the same person is republican and democratic? If you are a staunch democrat, how can you vote for this person if they MAY exhibit republican tendancies or vice versa?

I was furious by the time I finished voting. I would not let anyone else in until, I showed the idiocy to the pollster volunteers. "How can you explain this?" I said. "We might as well live in Cuba for all the good free elections mean. One guy was in 4 parties and several others were in a minimum of three. Rockland county has always had a reputation of the democratic good old boys network, but this was absolutely ridiculous. Just wondering if any of you experienced the same stuff at the local level?

Regards,

Bill

[Seascamp]

Not the same here but some similar stuff goes on. Being a rural cow county everyone knows every one, or nearly so. That being the case, there would be no point to an unknown running for anything or a known showing up on multiple ballot places. Those two things just don?t happen. But the other edge of the axe is that there certainly is a good old boys network that fairly well calls the shots on most issues. There is a half dozen family names that make up the original area settlers; all Fritzes from da old country, and they are exceptionally influential and have the wealth to back it up. The adjoining town and county seat is Minden and of course is named after the German town of the same name. In my opinion they brought a lot of their old traditional bad habits with them. Speaking of everyone knowing everyone, I went to high school with the current District Judge and he was the Jody that picked off my Gal Pal while I was in VN. No hard feelings on that issue at all as its funny these days. My former Gal Pal now is the lesson giver/speaker on the local AM radio evangelical station. Goodness, how times change, for sure. Good for her I?m thinking, but she pretends as if she doesn?t know me when her hubby is up for re election. Aarrgg, like I?d ever say anything political or derogatory about the wild old days, nope, not I.

So anyway Bill, I suppose it?s a different flavor of the same deal everywhere. But as our County population grows we are seeing increasing numbers of vocal Democrats and Liberals and things can get real dicey and this tends to keep the gold boys club walking fast and looking over their shoulder, LOL. :ek:

Scamp

[BLUEHAWK]

Bill & Scamp,

I have been messing the PF nest with protest about this kind of stuff for a long time, to the point that Scout has to restrain himself from actually leaving Texas to tape my mouth closed :-)

However, this IS THE single greatest threat to America other than terrorism at this time, and maybe even of FAR greater importance.

So, I will trouble this thread to post once more the first 3 things we ought to be doing to rectify the better part of our electoral problem:

ABOLISH
> closed primaries
> electoral college
> gerrymandering

Not much can change unless and until those things are taken care of... and the fact that such change will receive HUGE resistance is proof of their centrality in the problems you two are recalling.

[Keith_Hixson]

It is very common in small counties to run unopposed. When I was involved in Politics on the Local level I always ran unopposed. At times we would have to recruit in order to get someone to run for office. Sad!

However! Seattle got rid of a bunch its idiots. They had some real corkers on the council in Seattle. This last council passed a resolution to have all the Dams on the Columbia, Snake River System Blown up, of course it was a resolution without teeth but stupid. So, a couple of cities in Eastern Washington passed resolutions to have Seattle blow up all their Electrical Output dams. The didn't even know that the Seattle own several dams of their own, but yet they were ready to blow up other dams.

Usually in the rural counties its the same old stuff.

Keith

[Tamaroa]

The unopposed stuff doesn't bother me as much as the ability to register for several parties some of which are light years apart in thought and deed. If you are a Republican and Mr. X is in the Republican column and in the democratic column , does it matter which flag you pull down to register your vote? If Mr. X gets more democratic votes than republican votes does anybody care? It is almost to the point where I ask, why are there parties? put a liberal republican next to a conservative democrat. What are the differences?

I am confused and perplexed
Bill
:cd: :cd: :cd: :cd: :cd: :cd:

[darrels joy]

Unless there is an issue lots of people take exception to, people will vote to keep the guy they know. In rural areas and small town, they know the polititians.

This year the Yakima City Council got voted out of office. OK, not all (4) but a man that had served well for years was finally able to retire because there were people wanting his job.

The issue that got people involved was water. The city wanted to rebuild the old irrigation system in the better part of town and shut off the irrigation system (unmetered water) to downtown and the whole east side of the city.

That would mean $200 a year for unmetered water and more than $200 a month to keep the lawn green for the rest of us. Petitions were circulated, signed and turned in. The city council voted to upgrade the entire system but it was too late for several members of the council. They got voted out of office anyway.

No "party machine" involved. Most local elections involve people spending (at least partly) their own money to run. True in the Tri Cities as well.

[Keith_Hixson]

I was surprised the Republicans did so well in this election with the two governorships.

Keith

[Seascamp]

One engineering tool used when nothing seems to make any sense is called statistics and probabilities. This is the last ditch before ya throw down yer rifle, stand up and say ?I surrender?. Anyway, one of my favorite tools is to pitch a bunch of digits and stats into a number cruncher and see how the random distribution plays out in the form of a bell shaped curve. The center of the bell is the highest population of data and the slopes on either side represent deviation from the greatest population. In terms of politics, I see nearly the same deal. A gifted politician will see where the peak of the bell is and play to local needs and wants. A courageous and brave politician will try to shift the centerline of the bell curve and will usually not succeed. A ubiquitous; something for everyone politician, will try to play to the full width of the bell curve, including the lunatic fringe at either extreme. However, that full width political identification deal is just entertainment and without credibility.

But with the odd roll of the dice they sometimes get elected and promptly make a pock mark and a pile of hot smoldering aluminum scrap on the side of the first divided political mountain they encounter.
I just look at a multi party, multi philosophy candidate and just throwing a handful of iguana shit on the wall and seeing if anything sticks. As I see it, it?s all a part of free speech and political participation. Not a big deal unless we forget our vote responsibilities and contemplative examination of issues.

And Blue, don?t worry about Col. Scout boiling out of Texas to tape your mouth shut. That isn?t going to happen. He?s into free speech so he just may come to Tulsa and ?skin ya? instead. I?m just kidding Blue as I respect your debates with Col. Scout and well meaning mutual barbs. We all learn a lot from that, get a good smile, laugh and chuckle. But some serious stuff is learned as well and that is much appreciated.

Scamp

[BLUEHAWK]

Old Scout holds you in real high regard too Scamp... and we all learn from that as well.

He hasn't taken any of my stripes yet, so I guess I must be filling a useful slot in here somewhere :-)