That’s a question being asked in the village of North Prairie, where no one has taken out the papers to run for Village President in the April 2009 election. I’ve not seen an update to this story, so I don’t know if anyone filed late for Village President, but barring a name on the ballot, it will be interesting to see how many write-in candidates end up getting votes in April.
Thankfully we won’t have that problem here in South Milwaukee, with four candidates running for 2 school board seats and 9 candidates for the 8 aldermanic seats. While it’s good to see enough candidates for all the elected positions, it’d be nice to see a little more competition among the aldermanic candidates, with 6 of the 8 incumbents not facing any competition for their seats. The phenomenon of incumbents running for reelection without oppositions is one I’ve noticed for years now, not only on the local level, but also on the state level, such as Rep. Mark Hondel running for reelection to the State Assembly twice without opposition.
I’ve often wondered if this trend of fewer and fewer individuals seeking elected office is due to a lack of interest in serving in elected office or if it’s due to some other factors such as the lack of a public financing system, but I hope more citizens will take the opportunity to run for elected office, because I believe our democracy is at its best when our citizens are active participants in the democratic process.
I like this quote from Erik Brooks…he’s got the right idea!
QUOTE: “Now, more than ever, South Milwaukee needs new voices and fresh ideas. I provide both – and a commitment to making things better, not to the status quo.”
South Milwaukee is your typical clansville. Anyone NEW who is running for alderperson and does not have connections to the current clan in charge is a GREAT thing! South Milwaukee needs a new mayor, city attorney (current city attorney has been in that position for over 20 years), and muni judge.
Slightly off topic: Why didn’t the SMPD check to see if the former police chief and current member of the FPC was drunk when he hit a parked car and left the scene? If something like that happened in the City of Milwaukee everyone would have been all over it.
Anon, I do see a lot of the same names on the ballots every election, and to be honest that’s one of the many reasons why I chose to put my name on the ballot for school board, simply to provide people with another option to choose from.
I’m hoping you can offer some information on the Oak Creek Mayoral primay.
Karl, I’ll do my best….keep your eyes peeled for an update on the Oak Creek mayoral race.