It’s the time of year when you get your arm twisted to vote – often by people who supposedly don’t even care how you vote as long as you do so.
Maybe you shouldn’t.
We’re not suggesting that you shirk your responsibility as a citizen and throw up your hands in disgust or disinterest – hey, it’s more fun to watch TV than to read the voter’s guide.
But if you punch your ballot, we hope you’re paying attention to what you’re saying. The politicians are.
Voting is your right as a citizen and, in the kind of government we have, it really is a responsibility. But in today’s world of a general public largely jaded by two-faced public “servants,” it can be tough to find an educated voter and it can be tough to find the truth as a voter.
We’ve previously questioned the wisdom of such “reforms” as campaign finance limitations, not because we like having Big Business grease the palms of elected officials that corporations want in office. It’s an established fact in Oregon that the politician who spends the most money on his or her campaign generally wins.
If you are about to vote for the guy who has the most money just because you only know his name and haven’t learned about anyone else, maybe you shouldn’t vote. If you plan to re-elect one of the bums, don’t .
The same thing goes for term limits. If you think a candidate has been in office long enough, limit him or her yourself.
If you for some reason prefer one of these career politicians or over-funded hopefuls, you should be able to vote for them. But we encourage you to take a close look at third-party candidates with low campaign budgets. They work cheap, but you can learn about them through the Internet.
If you vote in our City Council election, consider that some of these folks have a track record. You know them personally. You have seen their names and thoughts shared in the papers. You have heard them speak at public events. You see them involved in a variety of community and civic activities. Use everything you know about them to pick people you trust to run your city.
They all come to us with “new ideas.” Some think it’s “time for a change,” or the city needs “new blood.”
Often, they are simply giving us the same old ideas, which have been discussed before and in many cases tried already; but this doesn’t mean those ideas are bad. It certainly may be time to think about them again.
Newcomer candidates who win are in for a number of revelations. They will discover that road repairs and improvements are already prioritized and that finding the funds to fix them all is a bit tricky. They will find that the city has used crews of people who owe fines to do work around the city in the past, something that might be workable again at some point.
The best councilor will be the kind that can come up with solutions to the problems that got in the way of these ideas or find creative ways to fund the projects that are important to this city.
This slate of candidates has potential. Their ideas are not really outside the box, but they have some thinkers among them. Try to figure out who they are and then cast your vote.
And be sure to voteon our library and public safety levies. It counts.