Perception, never forget it

Well, the town election certainly was on the low side.  

Truthfully, I didn't get the total vote count.  I was much more interested in the results for a race and an issue.

Turnout was absolutely pathetic though.  Appears to have been around 14%.  

As bad as that was, if you want to try to hang your hat on the low turnout as a reason for losing you need to seriously take a refresher course in a few concepts related to political and statistical theory. 

The margins in all matters speak volumes about what does matter.

No surprises in the contested races for elective office.  

The only real surprise, the margin by which the BPW ballot question was defeated. 

When you have a question like that and it gets defeated by a 2 -1 margin, it should tell you a great deal about just how good the proposal was perceived by the public.

Reverting back to the tried and proven mantra, perception is 95% of the battle. Bottom line is a perception grade of 95% equates to an A. The grade of of 90% good only gets you an A-. 

As far as trying to sell something to the public, an A- is a failing grade.

This whole exercise reminds me of the famous Lincoln quote and what you can and cannot do with  some and all people at times.  Let's leave that point alone, at least for the time being.

So where does this leave us? 

We have a TA law that was essentially written under assumption that the BPW in its present form would be written out of existence.  That leads one tempted to discuss another old saying involving assumptions, but we will also leave that point alone also.

There should be no issue or debate about the fact that government is in fact a business.  It is a big business even in our small town. 

There should also be no forgetting the fact that government is in the business of public service. 

While the private industry business module is well worth looking at, studying and in many ways emulating, it should be used as a guide only and not taken as black letter law.

When you propose to take something away from people, and there is no mistaking that people would be required to relinquish something here, and you offer them a substitute, you best be certain it is a worthwhile substitute.

Despite what some out there may think,  people really aren't stupid. 

Creating a BPW with no power, no real say, and no real ability to even perform the citizen's advocacy function to be given it doesn't become attractive to most people just because you are going to elect the members of that board.

You might have been able to sell this whole thing if you could have had a vote withing a couple of months of the last town meeting.  It probably could have passed last summer. The excitement and the prospect was appealing to some. 

But like most ideas, given time to simmer a bit, the initial wow factor wears off and people have the time to do a good job of separating the wheat from the chaff. 

The biggest political faux pas in this little exercise hasn't been the attempt to abolish the BPW as it exist. It was attempting to create a paper lion board and trying to sell it to the public as "just as good".

Right behind it were the written and spoken comments chastising present board members for stating they would not serve on this new board if the ballot question passed.

People made a decision to run and serve based on what is.  They didn't agree to stay on because you wanted to change things. No one should be required nor feel obligated to continue to serve in an entirely different capacity than the one they decided to seek election for.

I could go on, but won't.

A 2-1 margin, no matter how small the turnout, should tell you something.

Enough for today.

Be safe.