I have been enjoying Dave Baumeister’s columns on Cory’s blog as of late. Dave touches on a lot of topics I do, and puts a different twist on them. I guess it is probably because he is a real journalist and I’m a hack.
Dave’s latest column is about having local non-partisan races, particularly the county commission;
Two of the local governing bodies, school and city, exist as non-political positions. Why doesn’t the same hold true for county elections?
I totally agree with Dave on this issue, but . . .
The city council and school board have become very politically motivated. Did you know that the city council has only ONE Democrat and NO indys? The Minnehaha County Commission isn’t much different, one Dem, no indys. You can do the math on the other members. I actually believe one of the top reasons councilor Starr wasn’t elected to leadership this past year was because of his blueness. I don’t know what the make up of the school board is, but I will say that Mickelson would have never gotten elected if it wasn’t for the Republican Party throwing oodles of money at her (and putting yard signs in the Tea School district).
So while Dave’s sentiment is nice, and noted, living in a red state, non partisan races don’t really matter, because you are still going to end up with a basket of deplorables on your local boards.