Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Running for office

I believe one of the biggest obstacles in the decision to run for public office deals with both the money and a support group to help with the many tasks associated with running a campaign.

Clearly raising money must either come from one?’s own pocket or from a lot of friends willing to put their money where there mouth is and where their convictions are. For those that do donate time or money what should your expectations be in the process once you have successfully got your man or woman elected?

I would suspect all of the local elected officials have run into situations and finances far beyond and much different from what they had excepted when they were just candidate challengers. In short, they find themselves burdened by the past. Many that voted for their person then becomes cynical in that they make the claim their candidate has changed. I think for those that are inclined to help and donate time and money to local candidates you should keep in mind that you were not the only person to vote for the candidate and give him or her political input and advice. My point is that making judgments based on your own personal feelings and on how you think the job should be done sometimes is very unfair to the elected person trying to make continuous head way and to reach the goals they put forth in their campaigns. The three local government entities only have one vote each in their respective bodies. Sometimes your candidates must ?“politic?” to get a step closer to the common goal.

The previous poster bemoaned the fact of the public fighting and I can only assume that they were referring to the recent re-org of the City Council. We should remind ourselves that the leadership of the local government legislative bodies have all changed over the last four or five years. I think just because new leaders take on the responsibilities of their respective group doesn?’t really mean the group as a whole has changed in direction of their common goals. Every year the City council has changed leadership, the trustees have changed leadership and the school board has changed leadership. I suspect there were some hurt feelings among all three bodies, but as an outsider I really have not seen a change in their political direction.

With the above statement said there is a responsibility for the elected officials to remain in touch and to be honest with his or her supporters. After all one of the reasons you got elected was because of the support of many people working to get you elected. Ignoring the feelings and the input from your current or former supporters probably dooms your next election. I have heard of elected office holders blocking their email system from accepting certain citizen?’s emails because they were being criticized by that local voter/citizen. Unless you believe in the Parker doctrine then you should make every effort to keep the in touch with your supporters.






Now back to the original question of why people don?’t run for office. As we saw last fall no one challenged the current school board members and reluctantly the current members ran again unopposed. Of the three local government entities (school board, council and trustees) I would say the worse job is the school board.



By Back bencher

Running for office Cont.

The school board elections covers, I believe, over 35 precincts and they get the smallest compensation package of the three mentioned above. Then tie that to the emotional outbursts of some parents that want you to love their child as much as they love their child. Many of these parents can find that their child does no wrong and any failure of their child is the result of poor school training or poor school control over the situation.

All three government entities have managers/superintendents to run the day to day operations. Judging by the comments made by current and former board members the school administration is by far the most out of control government body within our community. Many in the school administration want to operate in secrecy and not allow outsiders including board members to see or to be made aware of school policy and just how the taxpayer?’s money is being spent.

So with regard to the school board, we can only expect those citizens that are either retired, under employed, or someone that does not know when to say uncle to run. That in itself limits the field of potential candidates to a very small minority in our community. It also creates a board that comes from one social demographic of upper middle class leaving behind the views and feelings of the vast majority of our voters. I think we need to address the compensation package with the school board.

Then there are the trustees and the council. They both appear to get a better compensation package and they receive less grief from their constituents. At least the grief is less emotional. In some cases candidates elected to the trustees and to the council sometimes want to pursue higher office and that causes political backlashes from their supporters that were in the race for the long haul. As were saw in the most recent elections last fall both the council candidates and the trustee candidates were challenged. That is healthy for the community. I also suspect that those that want to see a healthy debate in our community coming from the elected officials helped recruit and encourage these candidates to run. I also suspect that the reason we didn?’t have challengers for the school board was the compensation package and that there were no one was out there offering their personal support and finances to encourage citizens to run for office.

One of the offshoots from this PATA group was the Republican Club of Northwest Fairfield County. Although they have been accused of being PATA republicans the fact was that many supporters of PATA in the past were both democrats and independents. I suspect we need to find some way to encourage a support group to offer money and time to potential campaign workers and to recruit and find quality candidates to carry on with the community?’s goals. One of the main reasons we were taken over by the outside forces (builders & Developers) 15 years ago was that we didn?’t have but one source for local citizens to get involved with the local politics. Once the outside forces had secured the local Republican club and the social clubs the citizens were offered no choice in their community?’s future.

LET?’S NOT LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN.



By Back Bencher

Clarification

Back Bencher,

I hope you didn?’t interpret my comments as feeling personally offended that those I supported don?’t remember ME. I think they don?’t remember all those that supported them and why. I think the only people they listen to are those whispering sweet nothings in their ear and stroking their egos telling them how smart they are and how important they are and how powerful they are. When you talk about campaign funding, I am a little disappointed that these new webmasters haven?’t done what previous webmasters did and that was to publish the campaign finance reports. From those I have spoken to involved in council campaigns I think there were only one or two candidates that received 90%+ of their funding from within the city from regular residents like you and me. There were reportedly others that received a lot of funding from outside interests. That concerns me now as it did in the past administrations. Just because they claim to be the good guys does not lessen my concerns as to who they owe something to. I have no other expectations for those I supported other than they remain true to the cause and their constituents rather than becoming a slave to their own ego. What is so darned important about being a mayor or councilman in this little burgh that some of these people act as though they?’re anointed or conduct such low-browed campaigns that you end up thinking that it was a race to the death?

I understand politics and their necessity some times. Sometimes you have to work a deal to get a vote here with the expectation of paying something back later. Those politics work behind the scenes in the private of the meeting spaces of the elected officials. What sickens me is when the politics explode out into the public. Some of those politics have been detailed in these postings. People are getting hurt unnecessarily for purely political reasons with no connection to running the governing entity. Are those blatant political attacks bringing anyone closer to any common goal? On the other side of that coin, it is reprehensible for the depraved attacks back on those same elected idiots posting their rantings here.

I know there are people who seek these offices for the compensation. I think it meager in comparison to the workload but if some of these people cannot get medical benefits for their families elsewhere, then medical coverage might be a draw. I hope that is just a fringe benefit and not their calling to serve. Yes the Board is severely under-compensated but who isn?’t? I don?’t know how many other meetings trustees have to attend outside their twice-monthly public meeting but I suspect councilmen have many to attend. Perhaps too many and that might be part of the problem. They have their hands in too many things and that helps inflate their egos.

Forget starting up a new ?“support group?” Why? Because every earnest attempt to do so result is drawing the same old faces with the same old agendas and baggage. It would be impossible to avoid them. But good luck, if you do, post a link to their website here so I can see that the same old politicians aren?’t circling like buzzards.


By Disappointed