Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Entrenchment in office leads to stagnation



    Perhaps Councilman Baird Gourlay has it exactly wrong when he states that filing disclosure statements might discourage potential candidates; i.e. “It’s hard enough to find candidates to run for these positions.” 
    There were seven talented and involved candidates for two positions on City Council last election. I doubt that any would have been dissuaded by a requirement to submit their minimalist funding to the city clerk. Baird may actually owe his election win to the fact that the five “losing” candidates divided the anti-incumbency vote that might have swept him from office. Just possible.
    Incumbency gives a big leg up in virtually any election, no less so because of the built-in advantage of campaign donations—it goes with the territory. Entrenchment in office leads to stagnation; two terms should be enough. Let someone new in to bring freshness.
    There might be more candidates if everyone knew that he/she were playing on a roughly level playing field, roughly meaning that a candidate with strong ties to moneyed interests doesn’t have a huge advantage going into the election. Baird himself admits to having raised as much money as all the council members put together, even if we throw in the $200 that perennial candidate Mickey Garcia raised.
Gary Hoffman
Ketchum

 




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