Saturday's Ramblings

All right, so it's another Saturday.  My version of free form today I think.

If I am counting correctly 37 days until the town election.  I imagine everyone can guess the hot topics.  I am a bit surprised things are as quiet as they have been on the election front, but it will shift into high gear soon enough.  It really is going to be an interesting election, and year in Town afterward.

We will have one new selectmen, one new Health board member, at least one newly elected School Committee member, a new Planning Board member.  These are givens.  It has been awhile since there will have been a bummer crop of "freshman" elected officials.

I have seen one candidate statement in the S-T, at least on line.  There have been one or two announcements in the Neighborhood News.  Information is leaking out, either intentionally, through the grapevine, or from observation.

Interestingly, there are two candidates for different offices holding a joint fundraiser.  Nothing wrong with that.  Just interesting.  Not sure that has been done before in Fairhaven.  

I have been getting a lot of "tips" on just about every candidate ("tips" - Roderiques Code for "dirt").  Lots of tips but very few facts.  

First, let me tell you that I love information. so send what you want.

Secondly, if you do send me something, I don't see it as my personal duty to go out and dig up the facts.  this isn't a newspaper.  It is an ongoing opinion piece.  If it is something that might dovetail into something I want to write about, and can be proven, great.  If it doesn't well, it doesn't get time.

Also, I am not on a mission to torpedo anyone.  If I was, I would have had all the direct "hits" I wanted by now.  As  a note, however, that doesn't mean I will refrain from addressing candidates specifically.  It is going to take something pretty significant for me to do that though.

There is a lot of talk about what happens if this one or that one gets elected.  Believe it or not, if this one or that one gets elected, the sun will still rise, the earth will still turn and the days of the week will still march on.

The reason we hold elections is for the voters to decide who they want in office.  Everyone has their preference as to who they want to get elected.  If your favorite candidate does not win, well they don't.  

No matter what I think about someone personally, or may feel about their ability to serve, the simple fact remains that someone elected has been chosen by the majority of voters who made the decision to go to the poles.  I might not have voted for them, but they become our elected official.  

Of course this is where that elected official soon finds out the difference between representing the people and representing the people.  No, not a mistake in writing.

Representing the people in the first instance usually entails taking action to effectuate the things you promised.  The obligation to follow through on the platform that presumably got you elected.  The rational being that this is what the majority wishes.  Funny thing about the majority.  You really can't know what the majority wants unless a true majority votes, and even then, you need a margin of 51% of the total who could have voted.

Representing the people in the second instance always entails the constituent who may or may not have supported you, or even voted, but nonetheless he or she is someone you represent, that doesn't see eye to eye with you on a particular matter.  You might consider it a minor problem.  Most people might consider it a minor problem.  The person with the differing opinion will not.

Sometimes it will be just one person, sometimes a few, sometimes a dozen or so, and sometimes hundreds (and at that point it isn't minor).  But you will face it.  That's when the wheat usually gets separated from the chaff. 

I have seen people get elected who I supported who turned in total disappointments in my opinion.  I have seen people who I didn't support get elected and turn into great surprises.  Both usually make that "turn" based on how they represent the people in the second instance.

We often talk about one issue candidates, yet if one issue is what gets people motivated to run, I don't see that as a bad thing per se.   That is so long as the candidate has the tools and desires to do the entire job.  Quite frankly, I don't know enough about everyone running at this point to determine anything definitively about most of them.  

I am certainly familiar with a number of them.  Some I know quite well, some I respect a great deal. Some I find intriguing. 

All deserve the attention of the voters.  Just as candidates are often criticized for being one issue wonders, so too do voters often fall prey to that concept.   There are times people face issues which they feel are so important that nothing else matters.  During this election, that well may be the case for some.  I just ask voters to consider that the people they elect need to people able to deal with the all the issues.  

They need to possess the qualities and abilities to accomplish what you want.  

In the end we all walk to the voting booth, cast our ballots based on our individual decision, and hope for the best.  

If nothing else I hope Saturday's ramblings give you something to think about.