Well, as I write this, the 2011 local and county elections are history. Unfortunately, this just past election season highlights plenty of failures on several parts.
Failure #1) Media - Let's face it, the two candidates for St. Lawrence County Family Court Judge ran stealth campaigns that never really discussed the role of Family Court or the need to overhaul this bloated, over-reaching judicial bureaucracy...and the media let them get away with it.
There were no real debates or candidate forums. We heard virtually nothing about how either of these candidates would perform their duties had they been elected, and the media, along with the League of Women Voters, New York Professional Women, or any other typical sponsors of forums did nothing to correct that.
Family court is by nature secret. In fact, far too many of our court proceedings are done outside of public view. Why, for example, does Family Court assign "case workers" to kids who habitually get into trouble in school? These kids aren't in the legal system or the Person In Need of Supervisor (PINS) system, yet Family Court sees fit to assign them a case worker. Why? And how much does that cost the taxpayers of this county?
What else does Family Court do? I don't know and no one, especially my former colleagues in media, lifted a finger to educate us. That's truly unfortunate.
Failure #2) The political parties' failure to field candidates in many, many elections across the county and the state is deeply disappointing.
My town and party is indicative of the problem. We had one Town Councilman run unopposed and, while I enjoy working with this particular individual, voters should be offered a choice. The worst failure in Massena was the Republicans' inability to field a candidate in the race for a vacant seat on the Town Council. With only two unopposed races, there was no discussion on where either of the candidates stood on any issue or what his plan was for Massena's future.
But Massena is not unique, go the county's Board of Election website and see just how many races were unopposed. Part of the blame for that lies with the political parties themselves.
Failure #3) The citizenry takes the rest of the blame for unopposed elections. As a former political party chairman, I can tell you it is damn near impossible to find candidates. Almost everybody likes to bitch about the government and their taxes being too high, but when it comes time to actually put their time and money where their collective mouth is, the citizens run the other way.
It's easy to call politicians crooks or good old boys, but it's a little tougher to get off the couch and go out and do something for your community and its government.
Heck, it's extremely hard to even get people off their duffs to go cast their ballots. The privilege to vote in free and democratic elections is probably our greatest right as Americans. Sadly, too many people don't even register to vote, let alone step out to actually cast a ballot.
What do you have to say on the matter?
Three very valid and disturbing failures. Let us hope that it is not a glimpse into the future but a passing anomaly.
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