Losing to Win

This year it is to the advantage of the Hillsborough Republicans to lose the campaign for the one contested township committee seat.

The only township committee incumbent running for re-election is also the only Democratic on the committee. If he loses, the committee will no longer be two-party and any political consultant worth his salt knows that it’s to the majority party’s benefit to keep at least one minority member on board.

It’s important for the majority party to be able to claim that our committee is representative of all the people because it has members from both parties - that the two-party system works.

Additionally, when something goes wrong (that is to say, makes the voters unhappy for one reason or another) it always helps to have a member of the other party to share the blame. When something goes seriously wrong, the minority member can always be used as a scapegoat. And, conversely, when the minority member does something spectacularly outstanding, the entire committee can take the credit.

Also, the township committee’s current Democratic member has specialized planning knowledge and contacts that would cost the township a lot of money if we had to hire a consultant with the same background.

In the long run the Republicans should lose this one for Hillsborough to come out ahead.

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“More important than winning the election is governing the nation.” – Adlai Stevenson, July 26, 1952

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“[Social inertia] is often observed in politics, when people consistently vote for one candidate or party out of habit, regardless of whether or not they actually would benefit from that vote.” – Wikipedia.com

Politics and the County Fair

Most politicians will put politics before people in a New York minute, but not too many politicians have the nerve to put politics before kids – at least not in front of their parents the voters.

But Somerset County’s politicians did just that last Thursday when Governor Corzine arrived to visit the Somerset County 4H Fair. He was introduced to the 4H leaders who had worked hard to make the three days successful and the kids were primed to meet this unknown man while parents and grandparents warmed up their cameras.

But before anything else could happen, the county level politicians in attendance wiggled past the 4H representatives, clustered around the governor, and began to privately bend his ear. Considering the current county level political mess, it’s not hard to guess what they were talking about.

As the minutes ticked by, little kids began squirming while the adults started to mutter to each other that the Governor was there to see the kids and their projects, not other politicians and “those people” could talk to each other anytime. The votes were dropping like flies.

Finally the Governor’s staff disengaged him from the county mendicants and he was able to tour the fair, although a considerable amount of the time that had been allotted to the visit was already wasted.

While politicians and county fairs have gone together for centuries (maybe like ham and eggs?), our county level politicians have got to learn how to play the game or they will lose votes instead of gaining them.

And the politicians should have remembered that they were the guests of the 4H.

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As a side note, although the would-be politicians at the Fair were trying to get their names before the voters, they should not have pushed their way into every family-oriented picture with t-shirts blaring their slogans. Use some self-control; we have had little enough of that recently.

Politics Before People

The American two-party system pretty much doesn’t work any more. It’s broken and the Republican and Democratic politicians broke it when they started representing their parties and not their constituents.

Back “in the day”, if a politician represented a farming district his first obligation was to farmers; urban area representatives stood for urban interests, etc. No matter what party they belonged to, all the farming-district reps stood together, all the city-district reps stood together. You could tell what type of constituents a politician had by how he voted and his committee assignments.

Looking at the platforms of today’s politicians doesn’t give a clue what the interests of their districts and constituents are, but you sure know their party affiliation.

Is there any practical way to give the two-party sytem back to the citizens?

A start might be nonpartisan elections, but recent Hillsborough “nonpartisan” elections such as the Board of Education and the Charter Study Commission have shown we simply end up with party regulars running, quietly (and financially) supported by their parties. All that changes is the lack of a party affiliation listed on the ballot.

The rise of independent politicians might help, although I have no clue how they would finance any but the most local contests. Maybe if independents start winning local contests and proving themselves to their constituents they may eventually work their way up without becoming part of the old system.

The two major parties are much too entrenched to suggest they disband and we start again, but one hopes [0ne can always hope.] that there are at least some Republican or Democratic idealists who are trying to work from within to bring back representation of the people.

If the current two-party system doesn’t change – from the local elections on up - I fear for America as a democracy.

- Susan Gulliford