The Absent Uncle: Involvement

I was going through the mail from the last couple of weeks while we were gone and was somewhat dismayed to see the number of printed advertisements from local candidates for office had sent out. 

It certainly is understandable that if you are running for office you need to let voters know who you are. My dismay stemmed from the fact I had no idea who any of these local candidates were. Forget about party affiliation, about who is an incumbent, and what real decisions would be made in the office they were running for. 

To be honest, I know that I should have been paying more attention to these local elected officials’ performance in order to make an informed vote on electing them or replacing them. That is a basic reality. But it is hard to get information without real “local” sources and to make the time to attend city council meetings, county commissioner sessions, and following the state legislator’s vote on individual bills/policy decisions that are being made. 

In my– now home area – we have no local periodicals that cover just this community. Like in so many large metropolitan areas information sources (newspapers, television, radio) coverage is very regional, or statewide.   

Before I state the obvious about the Brandon Valley Journal’s value to your community, just think about how much information you get about your local decision makers every week to give you so much insight into their performance and how it matches (or not) your own sentiments. 

Just those individual glimpses on voting, opinions, and discussions as reported locally through the year are vital to knowing and electing the best qualified candidates, regardless of party affiliations. 

On my ballot there were 32 races; all but four of them had at least two candidates and all had party affiliation shown on the ballot. (But not incumbency) Most were for local judicial offices and finding out anything about electing a potential judge is almost impossible. So the choice then is: no vote, party vote, or reaction to a name. Not the best way to fulfill our civic duty. 

I did my best to catch up. My ballot is complete and has been dropped in the mail. I encourage all voters to exercise their right to vote; be involved.