Yesterday I walked past Allison's head quarters on Grand Avenue to get to our bank, and past Kernighan's HQ on Lakeshore Blvd. to get to Arizmendi. It felt just like a neighborhood election should, with supporters wearing t-shirts and carrying clipboards. With candidates and volunteers working the crowd at the farmer's market.
The thing is, Pat Kernighan wanted no part of it.
Just before the election earlier this year, the Oakland Tribune ran an article that included this paragraph:
Late Tuesday night, as results showed Kernighan with a substantial lead, she said she was pleased with the figures but still concerned about a runoff. "I would much rather have it decided now, a runoff is such a waste of time and money,'' she said.The runoff might have been avoided if the constituents of district 2 had voted for Pat Kernighan in sufficient numbers. We didn't. Therefore the election isn't a waste of time, but rather part of the due process of becoming our duly elected representative.
After the last two presidential elections, I find it baffling that anyone affiliated with the Deomcratic party would begrudge an aspect of the election process. That they would characterize any aspect of the process as a waste of time. Of course, outside of the page listing her various endorsements, the word 'democrat' doesn't appear on Pat Kernighan's website.
2 comments:
Actually, you'd be surprised. Most people who work in politics do not enjoy the election process. The amount of time and energy required to for getting re-election can be quite frustrating to all devoted public servants, because it is taking away from time they can spend actually helping their constituents. Of course Pat would rather have more time to do her job than be forced to run another campaign. But she's doing it because she has to. I'm not really sure what your problem is.
I would assume that Pat Kernighan does not discuss her political party on her website because City Council is a non-partisan office.
The issue of incumbents not withstanding, until someone wins an election they have no constituents - they are simply an ambitious member of a community among other ambitious community members. The panacea to the frustration you describe is as I indicated in my post - winning an election. Until you do, you haven't.
I don't expect politicians to enjoy the election process, and no I would not be surprised, but I expect them to experience it as something other than a formality or an affront to their sense of entitlement.
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