Saturday, December 15, 2012

Party-Managed Candidates

A few posts ago, we talked about the role of the political parties in the upcoming elections. Today, we find out that the Democratic Party is looking to endorse candidates in our local elections, despite the elections being officially non-partisan.  The Democratic Party has contacted several of the candidates to see if they would like to be interviewed for an endorsement.

It is the right of the parties in our free society to voice their support of candidates; however, this situation seems ripe for abuse, especially after the parties have been specifically excluded by the voter-approved Charter.

We continue to question whether either party can offer anything constructive on the local level. We continue to question whether candidates who seek endorsements are following the spirit of the Charter (and the will of the people). It smacks of purity tests, and we fear we will end up with party-managed candidates on the local level just like we have them at every other level in our political system.

See the email below:  Party questionnaire is required? Get back to me by the 17th at noon?

How about, "Take my clothes to the cleaners for me. Walk my dog, too, and drop this line item in the upcoming legislation."

Watch the brief clip of John Stewart where he comments on the extent to which national candidates are managed (starts about 1min 30sec into the clip). From our perspective, we don't want to encourage that sort of behavior here.
________________________________________________

Subject: Democratic Party Endorsement
From:    "Ron Zee" <ronaldzee@yahoo.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Candidate,

If you would like to request endorsement by San Juan County Democrats in
the race for the County Council, please contact me by email before noon, Monday, December 17.  Completion of a questionnaire is required in the endorsement process.  Thank you and good luck with your campaign.

Sincerely,

Ron Zee
Chair
San Juan County Democrats




15 comments:

  1. You folks at TH are better informed than most of us. Any chance to get a review by you of the actual final (not pen and ink, maybe it is still pencil) enacted CAO.

    Does anybody know what is going on?

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  2. Yes, definitely. We will do that, and I apologize that it hasn't happened yet. We will definitely be providing analysis of the final CAOs. We may not complete our analysis until early January though ... but we will be issuing it as soon as we are done.

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  3. Whatever you do do not put up any L.E.D. lights.

    I am, Incandescently, Nick Power.

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  4. You really don't wanna knowDecember 15, 2012 at 8:59 PM

    Let's get the questionnaire and publish it here. We'll get a grant to study it.

    We can suggest some additional questions to.

    Don't forget Jamie Stephens has been an official party hack pretty much all the way through his term ...

    Nice to see Ron Zee pop up again in this respect. Will part of the interview process include a loyalty oath to Kevin Ranker?

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  5. Per Mr. Power, but with incandescence and wattage limitations aside, I worry that my holiday lights might somehow be deemed exterior lighting fixtures and must therefore also be down-facing only. Now there's a challenge.

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  6. I guess the down facing requirement for exterior lighting is based on BAS. It has something to do with not upsetting nocturnal critters in the wetlands, which as we know, surround nearly 100% of all structures in the County.

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  7. Well, to the extent we're all floating on a critical aquifer recharge area, we're not so much surrounded by wetlands as bobbing on top of them.

    But the real nocturnal critters we don't want to upset are FOSJ snakes slithering around with cameras, spying, snooping in the dead of night.

    You can see them behind the trees, eyes gleaming behind night vision scopes.

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  8. Actually, the nocturnal creatures being considered are most likely migrating birds. I've read that they navigate partially by using the reflection of stars on bodies of water. So lights on houses confuse them.

    I personally can't stand it when people leave bright lights on all night. I'm wondering what their purpose is...(like my new, from the city, neighbor up the road) It just bugs me when it shines into my bedroom at 3 in the morning!

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  9. Not entirely true about the harmful effects of light on nocturnal creatures. As with so many things, there is another side to the story. Animals are quite adaptable.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-20524167

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  10. The local political parties seem bent on self-destruction. After the last heap of scorn dumped on the Democrats for endorsing Pratt and Rosenfeld and the Republicans too for endorsing the destructive propositions 1 and 2, I thought they might have reconsidered political endorsements in a non-partisan election. But no. I wonder what made the Democrats change their approach. All Pratt and Rosenfeld had to do was show up at the Democrats' Fair booth with signs proclaiming their favored status to "earn" the endorsement. This time Ron Zee is sending a candidate questionnaire to stick the partisan nose into the current electoral chaos. How do you think the endorsements will turn out? Well, for the sake of fairness and honor, I hope everyone will vote against every candidate who accepts a party endorsement and their money. We don't need partisanship in our nonpartisan elections.

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  11. Ralph Spoil Sport MotorsDecember 16, 2012 at 1:01 PM

    It's easy. If any of the new candidates either previously or this round seek or are discovered to have considered any party endorsement ...

    Just vote now.

    And what's this desperate deadline of December 17 about? Some kind of two for one sale? Remember, you must act now.

    The local Dems have gone all late night ads on us now. Next thing we know they'll be selling us sustainable Lint Lizards, as seen on TV. But only for their native habitat.

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  12. You can have my LED lightbulbs when you pry them from my cold dead hands!!

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  13. Seems like the SJC Democrats are as serious about offering endorsements as the Council majority was about listening to citizens about the CAOs. The Democratic ticket is set: Pratt, Stephens and Byers. All why-isn't-the-budget-bigger? nanny-state advocates. Supporters of a "tourist-based" economy. Supporters of grants and tax breaks for trust fund hobby farmers. Supporters of housing authority taxes, transportation authority taxes, taxes generally.

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  14. On the TH we do have some fun, guess we're all headed to jail.

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  15. Thank you for that subject. I recently did a non spying, a non long lens camera toting, a non investigation of tax records etc. but yes I did trespass on unoccupied property and so I can tell you what I do know.

    Having gone through building projects I pride myself knowing what the "rules" are well as anyone can know them under the "old" CAO and all the other crap currently on the books.

    There is not one property in current compliance with the "EXISTING" regulations in my neighborhood.,

    NOT ONE!

    We all seem to get along quite well.

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