POLITICS IS NOT JUST FOR THE
RICH--ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
(Written 28 October 1998.Published in the Neighborhood
Journal.Posted
23 July 2009.)
People here in Arkansas
like to talk about how political everything here is.And that's true.However, if you really want to see political,
go to Illinois.
I had the opportunity to experience "real"
politics during my three-year sojourn into the Illinois wilderness.You are talking about a state where if you
want to get a state job--any state job--your application passes through the
governor's office where your voting record is checked.Rest assured, since the governor is
Republican, then the guy filling the potholes is Republican.So is the guy emptying the trash cans.In Illinois, it's not what
you know but who you voted for that matters.
I experienced the 1992 elections as an Illinoisan.The elections of that year taught me three
valuable lessons about the electoral process--every vote counts, incumbency
does not guarantee re-election, and you don't have to have a lot of money to
win.
A Republican friend of mine by the name of Bob Vose who sat on the Springfield City Council was an odds-on
favorite to handily win re-election.He,
after all, was well-known and well-respected in the community.His Democratic opponent was an unknown novice
who worked in the circulation department of the "State
Journal-Register", Springfield's
daily newspaper.When the final results
were in, Bob retained his seat by the slimmest of margins--one vote.The final tally was 1,354 to 1,353.Of course, the challenger demanded a recount,
which upped Bob's margin of victory by just a couple of votes.Imagine how a person who supported the
challenger but did not vote must have felt--if he had voted, the outcome would
have been different.Yes, in the case of
Bob Vose, every vote did indeed count.
Bob fared better than several of his fellow incumbents on
the city council.One lost to the
challenger by sixteen votes. Not only did every vote count, but incumbency did
not help.Another incumbent who just two
years prior had almost unseated a popular Republican state senator was
thoroughly trounced by the challenger.What made it even more spectacular was that the incumbent, Bill Clutter,
was considered to be a "rising star" of the Democratic party and future gubernatorial material. If you want to be
governor, it helps to be able to retain the elected office you already have.
To me, the neatest election story from that election
concerned an election for State Representative.Illinois
has a quirky law that says that when a district is redrawn after the census,
the person representing that district can be elected from any of the new
districts that contain part of the old district, regardless of whether or not
you reside in the new district you want to represent.The incumbent representative of the district
I lived in, a Democrat by the name of Michael Curran, took advantage of this
law when he found out that the very popular, well-financed, and well-connected
Republican sheriff of Sangamon County, Bill DeMarco,
was going to be his opponent.In short,
he jumped ship.In place of Curran, the
Democrats offered a sacrificial lamb and forfeited the district to the
Republicans.That sacrificial lamb was
an unknown housewife by the name of Vickie Moseley.The Democrats were so sure that DeMarco would win that they practically abandoned Moseley
and her shoestring-budget campaign. When
the votes were tallied, Moseley not only scored an upset victory, but a
resounding one--she received about 70 percent of the vote in a predominately
Republican district.
So you see, there really are no
excuses for not getting involved in our electoral process, either as a voter or
a candidate.Every vote really does
count; just ask Bob Vose.And yes, an average Joe or Jane really can
beat a well-connected and well-financed opponent; just ask Vickie Moseley.In any case, it's your country--get involved.If you don't participate, you shouldn't
complain.
