Some days all I can do is just shake my head…

It’s happened so often that it’s now a cultural cliche: the gay politician pretending to be straight. In most parts of the nation, homosexuality or bisexuality is a clear electoral liability.

Not in Center City’s 182d state House district. There, it’s a badge of honor.

Veteran Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) last Thursday accused her primary opponent, Gregg Kravitz, of pretending to be bisexual in order to pander to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters, a powerful bloc in the district.

“I outed him as a straight person,” Josephs said during a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, as some in the audience gasped or laughed, “and now he goes around telling people, quote, ‘I swing both ways.’ That’s quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy’s a gem.”

Kravitz, 29, said that he is sexually attracted to both men and women and called Josephs’ comments offensive.

I could be shaking my head over this one for a while.

Success

1. At age four success is … not peeing in your pants.

2. At age 12 success is … having friends.

3. At age16 success is … having a drivers license.

4. At age 20 success is … going all the way.

5. At age 35 success is … having money.

6. At age 50 success is … having money.

7. At age 60 success is… going all the way.

8. At age 70 success is … having a drivers license.

9. At age 75success is … having friends.

10. At age 80 success is … not peeing in your pants.

11. Success is winning an election at any age.

Political turmoil?

Are you talking political turmoil?

Here is political turmoil … (Las Vegas Style)

Firefighters have long been the most sought after prize in local politics. Candidates of both parties fought hard for their endorsement, which came with money, volunteers in firefighter T-shirts to knock on doors, and a hard-to-beat image: candidate, flag and firefighter.

But several years of reports about firefighters’ lucrative compensation during a time of economic duress, exacerbated by a series of public relations missteps, have combined to make firefighters and their union politically toxic in some quarters, according to several political operatives.

A Democratic operative who was granted anonymity to speak freely, was blunt: “Not only are people not seeking the endorsement, they are actively avoiding it.”

Who would of thunk it?

I got a good laugh when I read in the Beloit Daily News that Rock County, WI is struggling with the issue Coroner vs. Medical Examiner issue.

THE CURRENT CORONER, Jenifer Keach, may have a point when she argues there are personalities and politics involved in efforts to switch her office from an elective position in Rock County to an appointed medical examiner.

FIRST, UNDERSTAND why coroners are elected in the first place. It’s a throwback to a much earlier time, when the Wisconsin Constitution was adopted, and all manner of relatively minor offices were set up to be filled by election at both local and state levels.

Obviously, as the years have gone by, death investigations have become much more complicated and scientific. Yet anybody can be elected coroner, with or without professional qualifications.

(I’ve written about this before but it is a story worth re-telling.)

The reason I laughed when I read that was because in 1996 I was elected Coroner of Barron County,WI on a 50-48 write-in victory. It was during a time when Barron County was in transition to a Medical Examiner yet the Coroner position was still on the ballot. I didn’t serve but I am the living proof that “anyone can be elected coroner…without any professional qualifications.”

The headline in the newspaper read …Coroner-Elect may be DOA.

It was a hoot.

One of my favorite websites is Killer Campaigning.

A recent commentary discussed winning elections while wearing a beard or mustache.

It concluded …

There’s a simple reason why the vast majority of politicians, elected officials and political candidates don’t have mustaches or beards: because facial hair, for whatever the reason, loses votes for male candidates (and female candidates too, I would imagine).

To tell the truth I have never put much thought into that.

Which David Letterman would you vote for?

I recently watched a city council candidate forum. It doesn’t matter where … it could have been anywhere. No special burning issue, just old smoldering ones. Everyone one of the candidates vowed to “listen to the people” and try to keep property taxes down.

Two of the candidates stood out. It wasn’t what they said it was how they said it. Both of those candidates answered the questions and then shut up. The other candidates all felt a moral obligation to attempt to use every second allotted, and babbled on and on and on.

Candidates … when at a debate or forum or whenever you are answering questions …. answer the question and shut up. It will reap you big rewards.

Election ties happen all the time. When you scour the news for local political news like I do, you realize that tie votes are not all that unusual. It is how those ties are decided that is the news.

I was recently reading about the tie city council race in Sealy, TX.

In Sealy candidates  Mark Stolarski  and Wyn McCready rolled dice. Three dice each in their box, high score wins.

There is picking a name out of a hat.  Or picking the long match stick. Or a hundred yard dash. (Just kidding, seeing if you are still reading.)

My favorite? The good old fashion cut of the cards. But, that’s just me.

How would you want your race decided?

It is local election time in the Pontificator’s home town. In addition to a very interesting two way Mayor race we have eight council candidates running at large with four seats vacant. Yard signs are multiplying with every passing day. It reminds me of Ole Oleson.

Ole ran for Mayor the same time I did in 1984. In addition to the incumbent there were four challengers including Ole and myself. A primary was needed to cut it down to the final two. Ole was a very popular “character” around town. He owned a small diner and was very involved in the local Elk’s Club. Everyone like Ole.

I vividly remember standing on a corner while going door to door and seeing a wave of Ole signs as far as my eye could see. On both sides of the street. I remember questioning myself “what the hell are you doing?” Ole had more yard signs than the other four candidates combined. Ole came in last place.

Yard signs don’t win elections.

I’ve never forgotten that.

I was having a discussion with a Mayoral candidate the other day. We were discussing yard signs. I told him my philosophy of yard signs.

Only place a yard sign in the yard of someone who contacted your campaign and wanted one. You don’t call anyone and ask if they want a yard sign. I don’t care how much you think someone may support you, they must ask for the sign.

If someone has a sign of mine I do not want them asked why they have one, and have them answer, “I was asked and I didn’t want to say no.”

I would rather have 50 signs in yards of people who want them, rather than 100 signs in yards of people who don’t.

Also, no vacant lots.

I’ve just read a story about about a pretty smart young politician.

Thomas Connor Moss a 21 year old student at Middle Tennessee State University. Mr. Moss is also running for an at large seat on the Murfreesboro City Council.

What makes Mr. Moss so smart at such a young age is what he said it would take to win this election.

“I can only win this election with help from voters in the university,” Moss said.

That is right Thomas. You can’t win any election without your base getting out and voting.

Never forget that.

Different strokes for different folks. We all have our own styles in everything we do.

That goes for management styles too. How many of us over the years have had bosses that we have liked and/or disliked based on their management style? I started to think about management styles while reflecting on my last post.

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of books about management styles. In reality there are two extremes, authoritarian and participative management styles with most managers blending the two extremes into their own style. Obviously a manager who wishes to restrict an employees constitutional rights (even when off duty) like in my last post, falls into the authoritarian style.

Here is another one.

FLORISSANT, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) – A showdown in Florissant, Missouri, Monday night. Amid allegations long time mayor and former police chief Robert Lowery had been running election campaigns – in part on the city’s dime – the city council banned Florissant department heads from campaigning for candidates for city offices, even on their own time. It was a unanimous vote.

The crowd of close to 75 erupted in applause when he finished speaking.

While I am totally opposed to a Mayor or City Administrator forcing city staff/employees to work on their behalf for a candidate or issue, I am also totally opposed to the idea that these same staff/employees are forbidden to work for candidates or issues on their own time.

A city employee should not have to relinquish constitutional rights in order to retain their job.

Recently I was talking with a City Council candidate. He told me he recently ran into a fireman and he introduced himself and told the fireman he was running for city council.

The fireman looked the candidate straight in the eyes and asked, “Are you pro fire?”

The candidate replied, “Well no actually, I would like to see fewer fires.”

I admit it, I don’t know everything about politics.

In fact I was stunned when I learned that a Governor (at least in one state) can suspend a City Council Representative.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.– The city council was short a member at Tuesday night’s meeting. Council member John Meserve was suspended by Florida Governor Charlie Crist about half an hour before the council meeting.

Meserve is facing charges of brokering and selling real estate in Mayport without a license.

Is this one of those things that somehow just escaped me for all these years?

Can every Governor suspend an Alderman?

Can those same Governors suspend a County Board Supervisor?

Can your Governor do these things?

Let me know.

Everywhere I look lately I see another article about using Social Media in local campaigns/politics/government.

Social Media expert John Moore asks … Will politicians understand that Twitter is not for one-way social interaction?

And my friend Phil Van Treuren at Killer Campaigning writes about …. Political Campaign Tweets: Twitter, Candidates & Elections.

I know if I were a candidate for office I would be investigating the use of social media for my campaign.

I mean the Academy of Local Politics has a Facebook Fan Page. Each post written on this blog finds its way to the Facebook Fan Page and eventually Twitter. That’s just the way things go these days. If a candidate doesn’t understand that they are missing out big time.

By the way if you aren’t a Facebook Fan of the Academy of Local Politics you should be. Sign up at the Facebook Logo on your upper right side.

How should vacant city council positions be filled?

Every city council eventually has a vacancy. Eventually meaning almost yearly. Aldermen come and go so quickly on some councils it is hard to watch the game without a scorecard.

Tacoma is struggling with this process right now.

Earlier this month, at least 40 candidates, vying to fill out the remaining terms of two at-large council seats, gave presentations to sitting city council-members about their qualifications and reasons for seeking the appointments. Although the current council kicked off the appointment process, next year’s newly configured council, which includes three newly elected members, will actually make the selections to fill the vacancies.

Council will hold a special meeting to discuss qualifications of the selected candidates in executive session*, to be followed by an open meeting to select appointees to serve on the City Council. Executive sessions are not open to the public.

Letters will be sent to the selected candidates regarding the results of the meeting.

Forty candidates? Presentations in open session. Deliberations in closed session.

Personally I like Mayor appointment with Council approval to fill those slots. How’s that for an opinion from a former Mayor?

Students … what do you think?  This is your assignment. What is the best way to chose replacement aldermen?

Leave your comments and thoughts.

Love’m or hate’m, yard signs are visible in practically every political campaign.

There are strategies involved in making those yard signs the best marketing tools possible.

The Electioneering 101 class will be discussing the following article after Thanksgiving break.

3 Creative Ways to Place You Election Signs

This article is from that great website LocalVictory.Com.

(If you are a local government candidate you should have that website bookmarked.)

Everyone has ideas how to win elections. Even those people who have never run for election think they know how to win elections.

Joe Garecht has written a piece “How NOT to Win Election Campaigns.”

It is recommended reading for Election Class.

This post is intended for anyone who has ever thought about running for a local election, but didn’t know how to start planning an election campaign. Winning elections doesn’t just happen by accident. Winning elections is hard work. However, there is help.

The best book I have read on how to run for local office is … How to Run for Local Office by Robert J. Thomas. I highly recommend this book. If you don’t want to spend $19.95 for the book you probably don’t want to win an election very bad.

If you do want to try to win an election on the cheap, then at least visit Local Victory – Your Guide to Winning Elections.  This website has a warehouse of articles on running and winning elections.

If anyone knows of another book or website that can be a valuable campaign tool please leave a comment with your recommendation.

Candidates for election will do anything, at times, to get noticed. Royal Barber of Sylvania Township in Ohio came up with an idea I would have never thought of. He placed the names of his rivals for the township trustee position on Halloween tombstones in his yard.

Naturally, one of his opponents did not find the humor in it and demanded his name be taken off. There has to be a killjoy for everything. Mr. Barber complied with the request.

Another opponent, Penny Levine,  ”burst out laughing” when she saw the display.

My elections were always in April. Putting my opponents names on Easter eggs wouldn’t have had the same impact.

Good luck Royal. I can’t vote for you but I hope you win!

Government needs more people with guts and ingenuity.

There is certainly a time and place for recalling elected officials.

Then there isn’t. 

Eight of the 13 Monroe County Supervisors who voted for a $30 million Justice Center will face recall this fall.

The recall was organized by Monroe County Taxpayers Relief, which opposes the Justice Center. Its leader, Dennis Clinard, said it wasn’t easy collecting a sufficient number of valid signatures, which ranged from 94 to 178 depending on the district.

I am not making any judgement on the merits of building the Justice Center. I just don’t believe an elected official should be recalled for voting one way or another on a specific issue. That is what regular elections are for.

Recalls are for removing sleaze.

Is Patsy calling her competition a drunken liar without coming right out and saying it?

What did we do before the Internet? 

No really, what did we do before the Internet? 

I am speaking specifically about local government attempting to keep citizens informed.

Now, practically every unit of government has a website and if they don’t they should.

But, how good are those websites? Do they have the information on the websites that the public wants and needs?

Sunshine Online to the rescue! 

The My Government Website project evaluates the information governments post on their websites at the statewide, county, city and school districtlevel. We evaluate websites based on Sunshine Review’s transparency checklist, which checks for basic information such as meeting minutes, budgets, audits, and how to contact elected officials.

This project was recently completed evaluations for all 3,140 counties in the U.S.. Below are the 10 states with most transparent county governments; Arizona ranks highest at 65 percent. The scores reveal that all our communities need more transparency.

This website rates every county in the country as to how informational their website is for their citizens.

Look your county up. See how they are doing.

Happy reading!