So, 2015 was a municipal election year. The elections have come and, mostly, gone. The top headline is probably that Joe Hogsett was elected mayor of Indianapolis. (Congratulations to Thomas Cook (former Blue Indiana blogger) for his role in that campaign.) The Marion County/Indianapolis City-County Council will apparently be controlled by Democrats by a one seat margin.
The thing is, the real importance of municipal elections, is often not primarily at the top headline level. There are lots of down ticket races that will have an impact on your daily life. Local government isn’t as eye catching or headline grabbing, but it makes the most difference in the life of the average citizen. Mayors, city clerks, council members, school referenda — they help shape your community. But, because these are relatively obscure; because the issues they face are often not easily boiled down to a “my team/your team” news narrative, they are over looked.
When you have good leadership in your city, it’s probably just fine to kind of ignore them and let them run the local government. The minutiae of the issues they consider is often technical and coma-inducing. People have their own jobs to do and their own areas of expertise, having neither time nor the inclination to attempt some kind of colonial town hall democracy where the citizens weigh in on every issue. However, when you have bad leadership, citizens would probably be better off if they were knee-deep in the muck, preventing the bad leaders from messing up the joint.
How to know the good leaders from the bad? Well, I suppose you have to be paying attention. You have to know – at least in general outlines – what the job entails and whether the leaders are doing it. Our civic education is lacking — particularly when it comes to local governance. We teach our kids early about the President and the Congress. They get some additional instruction about the governor and the state legislature and how a bill becomes a law. But that might be about it. Not much about mayors and city councils and county councils, appointments of city engineers and police chiefs, etc. etc. In some ways, it reminds me of law school. We come out of those schools knowing a lot about how appellate court judges write and operate, but precious little about the nitty-gritty guts of what street level lawyers do with their days. Maybe our schools should start with local government and, if there is time, work up to state level and national level.
I have seen belly-aching about the lack of local participation and tips and tricks to improve turn out. But, in my mind, none of that works or matters until people know what and who the hell they’re voting for.
“until people know what and who the hell they’re voting for.”
I’ve been around for 5 plus decades and have yet to see it happen.
And tragically I don’t think I ever will.
Thomas Cook got his start in politics with my Congressional campaign! Great going!
I suspect that many people do know their city leaders, at least on a nodding acquaintance. They are your neighbors and you can see them walking around town. Apathy is mainly due to, as Doug says, “When you have good leadership in your city, it’s probably just fine to kind of ignore them and let them run the local government. ” Why bother going to the polls or even running or becoming an opposition candidate if things are going OK? In West Lafayette the last excitement we had (that I recall) was the 2008 Dennis/Mills race.
We have a small city council, where most of the people are either known or easily accessible, so it’s not a party thing. I had to look closely at their signs to identify party. That’s why I was ticked when I received a flyer that said if we vote for x, y and z, that would be a sweep for the Republicans. Party affiliation is not a big deal otherwise. Politicization of something where politicization was not necessary.
The incredible ignorance of the majority of citizens in this city/ state / country is appalling and these local elections are generally designed to favor Republicons in Indiana since they control the levers and game the system. For instance in my District 2 a complete moron named Colleen Fanning narrowly defeated a very, intelligent, capable member of the Council Kip Tew. I saw Ms Fanning talk at two candidate forums and couldn’t imagine how she could possibly win…unfortunately in Indiana stupid people get (s)elected all the time, and the rest of us pay for it…smdh