Progressives often accuse conservatives of wanting to "turn back the clock" on things like civil rights for women and minorities, or on policy that most of us have taken for granted for decades. It's not always fair, as scare tactics seldom are, but in the N.C. General Assrmbly's case, it's literally true.
Last year's midterm elections gave our state a Republican majority in the General Assembly for the first time in more than 100 years. Some of those Republicans are savvy enough to know that their majority may not last too long, and so they're not wasting any time. Which is why the people who ran on improving the economy and cutting spending have, so far, given us proposals to establish a new over-$1 million state bureacracy (only alloting $600,000 for it for some reason), bring back plastic bags on the Outer Banks (after only five months, which I'm sure won't cost anything at all), and to turn down $461 million that the feds have already promised us.
Comparatively, a bill that would change local elections, putting Forsyth County's municipal elections on the same cycle as presidential elections and making School Board elections partisan again (after only one cycle), seems like small potatoes, but it does matter. Starting with the obvious, this isn't something that we in Forsyth County have asked for (unlike the decision to make School Board elections nonpartisan, which got over 10,000 signatures on a petition).
Municipal elections, including mayor and City Council, are off-cycle from presidential and midterm elections. The last slate was in 2009. The bill's sponsors (all Republicans) argue that electing mayor and City Council in 2012 will be cheaper for the state, county, Board of Elections, etc. And I would buy that if the Board of Elections only functioned on a contract basis during election years. But they don't. They're there every day already, so where are the savings?
Having volunteered in 2008 and 2009, I can envision the horror show that we'd get if City Council candidates had to compete for attention with presidents. Candidates for Congress and agriculture commissioner already have it hard enough. Here in Winston-Salem, we had several City Council members face primary challengers, a few of whom won and now sit on the council. (That's a good thing.) Some of them were young and didn't have much of a base, name recognition or war chest. Some candidates were experienced incumbents who had three, but who would've struggled mightily to raise money in a crowded election. A City Council hopeful might need $30,000 to compete. He or she doesn't get that if drawing from the same donor pool that are also being hit up by campaigns for president, Senate, House, governor and state offices. What you would see is fewer people running, and shutting out willing leaders is never good.
If voter turnout (or voter burnout) is the issue, then that's on the candidates and their parties to reach out to voters and educate them - not a guy who won his last election with 69 percent. For the record, voter turnout in Forsyth County for the 2009 municipals was nearly 10 percent.
And the School Board thing is just galling. Non-political advocacy groups and ordinary citizens pushed for our School Board elections to join those of other counties in reflecting the fact that governing schools shouldn't be political. Basically, they took those Rs and Ds off the ballot. A record number of candidates ran, and all the incumbents were re-elected. This wasn't a radical change that knocked the Earth off its axis - so why turn back the clock?
I think it was my high school history teacher who first told me to always look beyond what an elected official says and find out who would benefit by that official's preferred policies. To that I think I would add, who does it piss off?
If the Republicans in the General Assembly were puuting forth ideas that they genuinely believed were best for our state, but that just happened to be slightly different from the Democrats' ideas, it wouldn't bother me. But thus far their leadership philosophy seems to be "We're in charge! Nyah nyah nyah!"
Don't believe me? I say again:
Federal government: Here's $461 million dollars!
Republican General Assembly: No.
I rest my case.
Last year's midterm elections gave our state a Republican majority in the General Assembly for the first time in more than 100 years. Some of those Republicans are savvy enough to know that their majority may not last too long, and so they're not wasting any time. Which is why the people who ran on improving the economy and cutting spending have, so far, given us proposals to establish a new over-$1 million state bureacracy (only alloting $600,000 for it for some reason), bring back plastic bags on the Outer Banks (after only five months, which I'm sure won't cost anything at all), and to turn down $461 million that the feds have already promised us.
Comparatively, a bill that would change local elections, putting Forsyth County's municipal elections on the same cycle as presidential elections and making School Board elections partisan again (after only one cycle), seems like small potatoes, but it does matter. Starting with the obvious, this isn't something that we in Forsyth County have asked for (unlike the decision to make School Board elections nonpartisan, which got over 10,000 signatures on a petition).
Municipal elections, including mayor and City Council, are off-cycle from presidential and midterm elections. The last slate was in 2009. The bill's sponsors (all Republicans) argue that electing mayor and City Council in 2012 will be cheaper for the state, county, Board of Elections, etc. And I would buy that if the Board of Elections only functioned on a contract basis during election years. But they don't. They're there every day already, so where are the savings?
Having volunteered in 2008 and 2009, I can envision the horror show that we'd get if City Council candidates had to compete for attention with presidents. Candidates for Congress and agriculture commissioner already have it hard enough. Here in Winston-Salem, we had several City Council members face primary challengers, a few of whom won and now sit on the council. (That's a good thing.) Some of them were young and didn't have much of a base, name recognition or war chest. Some candidates were experienced incumbents who had three, but who would've struggled mightily to raise money in a crowded election. A City Council hopeful might need $30,000 to compete. He or she doesn't get that if drawing from the same donor pool that are also being hit up by campaigns for president, Senate, House, governor and state offices. What you would see is fewer people running, and shutting out willing leaders is never good.
If voter turnout (or voter burnout) is the issue, then that's on the candidates and their parties to reach out to voters and educate them - not a guy who won his last election with 69 percent. For the record, voter turnout in Forsyth County for the 2009 municipals was nearly 10 percent.
And the School Board thing is just galling. Non-political advocacy groups and ordinary citizens pushed for our School Board elections to join those of other counties in reflecting the fact that governing schools shouldn't be political. Basically, they took those Rs and Ds off the ballot. A record number of candidates ran, and all the incumbents were re-elected. This wasn't a radical change that knocked the Earth off its axis - so why turn back the clock?
I think it was my high school history teacher who first told me to always look beyond what an elected official says and find out who would benefit by that official's preferred policies. To that I think I would add, who does it piss off?
If the Republicans in the General Assembly were puuting forth ideas that they genuinely believed were best for our state, but that just happened to be slightly different from the Democrats' ideas, it wouldn't bother me. But thus far their leadership philosophy seems to be "We're in charge! Nyah nyah nyah!"
Don't believe me? I say again:
Federal government: Here's $461 million dollars!
Republican General Assembly: No.
I rest my case.
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