It’s Town Meeting Day, and there are no votes this year to secede from the third dimension, or defund the smurfs, or draw up a warrant for the arrest of Garrison Keillor (but that last one is only true ‘cuz I’ve had too much other stuff on my plate… man, am I tired of that guy). All of which makes for a less colorful than usual TMD.
Here in Montpelier, we do the ballot thing rather than a meeting, and on my ballot is a contest to fill the spot of retiring District 3 City Councilor, Jim Sheridan. Two candidates are vying for the office: James Merriam and Angela MacDonald-Timpone, both political newbies.
But whereas I’m usually thrilled to see new faces in the process, this time around I’m annoyed. Why? Because in a district of a town this size, somebody should have asked for my vote. Directly (via a door knock or phone call, or even email) is not necessary. A door hanger, or even a comment from a designated proxy would do. But I haven’t heard a thing, and at the risk of sounding petty, that bothers me. It sends any one of several possible messages – and none of them are good. Maybe the candidates felt like they didn’t have to bother, maybe they felt that they were entitled to the office, maybe they just didn’t take it seriously enough, or maybe the issue was just laziness. I really don’t know.
Part of getting involved in local elections is electioneering. It’s not enough to think the job would be cool, or even to think you’d be cool in the job. Campaigning is, simply, part of the job description. And it’s not just an inconvenience or a ritual, it truly is part of the job. It’s part of getting to know your constituents, part of keeping them informed and bringing them into the process. That need becomes even more pronounced when, as in this case, the two look to be ideologically compatible (to the limited extent there is information on them available online and in print).
But it’s also just about simple respect. Respect for the process, for democracy. You expect my vote, well, at least do something to tell me why you deserve it – something active. Something more than the easy stuff (e.g. talking to a reporter and showing up to a forum). You need to get retail.
One of these two is going to win today, and I ain’t gonna be thrilled about it either way. Maybe next election, whoever-it-is can let me have some sense of why I should be.
LOL on the intro– great writing there. Who’s the cranky guy who wrote the rest of it?
Here in Randolph Select board/Town Manager politics have gotten so nasty I can see why a candidate would want to keep their candidacy’s quiet!
In my admittedly strange neck of the woods a twenty-nine year old (Aaron O’Grady) who admits to never having attended a City Council meeting, says he was “not in tune” with activity at city hall until two months ago, and has never met the City Manager, suddenly decided to jump into the race against Councilman Peirce, a retired schoolteacher, who has served on both the City Council and Planning Commission as one of the sane voices for 19 years.
Mr. O’Grady got a $1,200. contribution from local downtown developer seeking to block the move to meter parking on Main St. which is under consideration on the Council as a means to generate new revenue. He added $1,000. of his own money to that, out-spending his opponent by more than two to one. HIs efforts at campaigning include huge signage and a free pancake breakfast. He is Dustin Degree’s half-brother.
Also, yes yes yes yes yes…. my god my taxes are going to go up.
What do you expect me to do, stand outside and ask people to vote for me?
Answer: Yes, we do.
I just got back from counting ballots. Angela MacDonald-Timpone defeated James Merriam, 238-187. Out of 583 ballots cast in District 3, 120 didn’t vote for either Council candidate. That means that there were votes out there to get if one of the candidates had chosen to ask for them.
They all passed overwhelmingly, except the proposal to give the ice rink a tax exemption, which failed, 834-856.
In Montpelier we have an office of auditor, but we had nobody on the ballot for that position, which predictably means a lot of write-ins.
We hadn’t tallied them all by the time I left, but I think Doug Hoffer and Tom Salmon were tied at two apiece.
That would apparently mean that Salmon is as interested in being Auditor for Montpelier as for the state.
Is that Timpone-McDonald did quite a bit, including going door to door, talking to people at the Senior Center, soup kitchen, and Pioneer Apartments.
She’s in now, so we’ll see how she does.
I am even more tired of Wilum whateever his name is who is always going somewhere with his mother.