November Is Coming (or Will Wicomico County Become A Dunn Deal?) - I
Before DuvaFiles Monday post about the possibility of Mike Dunn running a stealth slate for County Council I had started a piece about what was needed for the next County Council. The notion of a Dunn / Tilghman / Greater Salisbury Committee / ? orchestrated slate to take over Wicomico County Council makes this even more urgent.
Wicomico County needs leadership and we obviously don’t have it. Before you bring it up, forget about the County Executive. The legislative branch of government needs to have leaders independent of an elected County Executive. Otherwise we can just have Salisbury annex the balance of the County and let Barrie Tilghman have her way. Do you honestly want the executive dictating every action of government? Under the new system, the County Council’s greatest impact will be on the budget and on land use issues. They will no longer be able to dictate action to the various county departments but will still control the power of the purse. However, to do so will require strong wills on behalf of all (or at least most) of the members. Just as Tony Sarbanes now runs roughshod over the present Republican members of the council, an elected executive will do the same without strong personalities on council.
Does this mean that we need a Republican majority on council? Not necessarily. Partisan politics is less meaningful (and certainly less necessary) at the local level, particularly in small groups. Large city boards or councils tend to be more partisan because of their numbers. A seven member council that votes along strict party lines is dysfunctional at best. Does it need to be a conservative dominated body? Again, not necessarily. Collecting the garbage and fixing the potholes are not ideological issues. Education can, however, be an ideological issue. Land use issues can seem ideological but really aren’t. They are far more economically (read financially) driven.
If you are interested in being part of the solution, read on. If you want to just sit back and not worry about it (or better yet complain) then stop here and let your schools get worse, your taxes go up and the overall quality of life in your community decline.
The first thing that you need to ask yourself is what things about my local government are most important to me? Are taxes more important than anything else? Seek out VOICE. Are development and the environment the most important things? Seek out groups such as the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance or the Wicomico Environmental Trust. If you are for unbridle residential development then you already have your power structure established. Are you concerned about issues like development and how it impacts education and the rest of the county budget? Get involved with “We Careâ€. If you live in an old fashioned neighborhood, join your neighborhood association. The point is that you need to get involved and the easiest way to get involved is to find like minded people to be involved with.
Once you have taken the first step in getting involved, you need to take the next step. Be cynical. Being cynical doesn’t mean being offensive, it just means that you recognize that everyone has some kind of agenda and it may not agree with yours. That doesn’t mean that you have to split off from the group, just keep apprised of what’s going on and work on the things that you agree with. Speak out, but do it in a civil manner. Ask questions. Get involved in more than one group.
Now let’s take a step back and remember that we’ve got a very important election coming up in November. We’ve got nine months to identify, persuade, finance and elect seven people to the County Council. Are there any people that you know, or have met during your involvement, who would make a good council member? If you know such a person, encourage them to run. Don’t worry about whether your current council person is running for re-election. At least two, and possibly more, incumbents aren’t running for re-election. All the incumbents who have not announced their intentions are weak. The biggest thing any of them have going for them is the fact that the statewide and legislative races are going on at the same time and will drive more people to the polls than during a purely local election. In other words, they have name ID. Otherwise, the citizens already made active by the incumbents’ voting records would have a distinct advantage.
What if you have a lukewarm positive attitude towards your current council member but they haven’t announced? Call them up. Ask them point blank. If they won’t commit to even running for re-election then what kind of leader do you think they will be on council?
If someone has announced in your district or for the at-large seats contact them. Ask them specific questions. Are you in favor of a schools excise tax? If so, how much per foot? Do you favor additional rezoning of land to residential uses? If you receive a “squishy†answer walk away. Do you favor additional residential development outside of the Fruitland – Salisbury – Delmar corridor? With all of the residential development in the pipeline, how do plan on paying for our schools? Roads? Public Safety? If you are opposed to an excise tax, then don’t support a candidate that waffles. If you are in favor of an excise tax to finance school construction then don’t support a candidate who waffles or says that he’ in favor of a $1 or $2 dollar per foot tax. Be careful about more complex issues such as impact fees and APFO’s. The only way that a candidate can give you a truthful, non-nuanced answer to those questions is if they are opposed to them. No honest candidate can give a blanket endorsement of either without seeing exactly what you’re proposing. Remember, impact fees have to be very precisely drawn up and used precisely or they won’t pass judicial muster. How to pay for needed infrastructure? Again, look for a straight (not necessarily simple) answer. Make sure your cynic’s hat is on. Look for conflicts or waffling in their answers. Do they propose to pay for infrastructure by reducing spending? Great! Ask them to explain how. Ask for specifics. I don’t know how it can be done, but I won’t swear it’s impossible.
OK, now you’ve figured out who to support. Now the hard work really begins. If you are convinced that the people you are supporting are what we need then it’s time to go out and get them elected. Donate money if you can. Trust me; the people supported by the Greater Salisbury Committee won’t have a big problem raising money. Donate your time. Walking door to door, talking to your neighbors, distributing literature and working a phone bank can really have a huge impact. Show up at candidate forums. Ask questions. Believe it not, some people will vote for your candidate because she seems to have the most popular support. “Jenny must really be a great candidate because I see all of these people going out and working to get her elected.†Don’t forget, should be involved in three races if possible – your home district plus the at-large seats.
Is your candidate part of an informal slate? Since the party structure is fairly weak in Wicomico County this could be really important. This is where a Dunn led slate could really be effective. You need to understand the difference between a slate and a ticket. Rather than running as a (public) block, a slate has certain things in common. They will share resources, encourage volunteers and contributors to work across campaign lines. A lot of this depends on who is running the respective campaigns. An example is a group of campaigns I worked on in 1982 in Virginia. I ran field operations for a Congressional race and also worked on Paul Trible’s campaign for the U. S. Senate. A lot of our volunteers were not hard core Republicans. Some would walk through fire for Paul Trible and wouldn’t cross the street for Herb Bateman. Some would do anything for Herb and wouldn’t exert themselves for Paul. The trick is to know what interests who among those in your circle and what motivates them to be active. You might be able to encourage friends to work for a candidate (help with a lit drop, etc.) they are not directly supporting because it may be important to them that their guy has allies (or semi-like minded people) on council with them. Don’t be concerned if they are a Democrat or a Republican. Are your candidates leaders. Are your candidates sound on the issues that you are concerned about. You have to be especially careful of this with friends or acquaintances that are highly focused on a single issue. This is one of the things I’ve never understood about the pro-life movement (and the radical pro-choice people as well). You might be in 100% agreement with a candidate on every issue but abortion, but you won’t support them. I’ve always been strongly pro-life, but I also know that this is not the only issue that affects my life.
Don’t expect the Dunn, et al slate to run as a solid block. First, they are far too smart for that. They will share resources. They will encourage contributors to cross-donate. They will encourage certain volunteers to help multiple candidates. They may be running as Republicans and Democrats. There will be certain key themes that run through all of the campaigns. We’re talking about a much more subtle version of the “Dream Teamâ€.
So what’s the bottom line? Pick your leaders and gird yourself for battle. If you want unbridled annexation and residential development then the Greater Salisbury Committee will pick your candidates for you. If you want to decide, then you need to get involved NOW! Pick your candidates and work to get them elected. If not, sit home, and complain about the results.
Publius will publish Part II later this week. Which incumbents (if any) deserve to be re-elected and why.
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CATO:
Looks like the spectre of Dunn and Barrie running the County has gotten to you — me too, but not to worry. In 2003, because of the apparent chaos that prevailed on the Salisbury City Council (and C.T. Webster’s death), it was fairly easy for the architects of the Dream Team (namely Phil Tilghman and Ron Alessi) to portray Dunn, Comegys and Cathcart as the great white hope. Now, they have shown their true color and it ain’t pretty. And Barrie Tilghman is so odious now that she could not beat a mediocre opponent.
Nevertheless, there has got to be a viable slate of candidates to thwart the Greater Salisbury Committee (”House of Lords”) elitists, who want to seize complete control of our governance once again.
Despite its excessive length, your commentary is on the mark.