09.28.06
Is Democracy Is Eroding In Williamson County?
In today’s AAS there is an article about the 15 uncontested races in Williamson County this November:
Elections Administrator Debra Stacy said that with state and political party approval, the county decided to simply list uncontested candidates on ballots without residents actually casting votes.
In other words, they won the Republican primary and therefore won the office. Whether unopposed races should be on the ballot or not is an issue I can see both sides of. It’s always seemed silly for that single candidate to be on the ballot, but the point of that office being hidden from voters if that office is not on the ballot, is well taken. Especially when it’s hidden from voters that show up at the general election and don’t show up for that one party’s primary.
Gary Keith, a senior government lecturer at the University of Texas, sees an erosion of democracy.
When residents don’t see candidates campaigning door-to-door — or when they don’t even have to click “yes” next to a candidate’s name — they lose interest in elections and government, he said. The law allowing unchallenged candidates to be declared elected was intended to save money and space on ballots, Keith said.
Here’s what the Democratic and Republican Party chair’s had to say about the uncontested races:
“To get a candidate to run, they must feel they can win,” said Richard Torres, chairman of the county’s Democratic Party. “We’ve run candidates, and they haven’t done well, so it’s hard to recruit when the outcome seems already resolved.”
Williamson County Republican Party Chairman Bill Fairbrother said the large number of uncontested races shows the party’s dominance in the area. County offices are more often decided in the primary than in the general election, he said.
“I think, in this county, that greatly limits what (the Democratic Party) can do,” Fairbrother said. “Also, in my view, we have a lot of excellent elected officials doing a good job, so there isn’t the outcry for opposition.”
[...]
“The strategy now is to keep moving up 5 or 10 points a year,” Torres said, “and we feel like we’re going to do that this year.”
The comments from the Republicans in this article come off sounding arrogant. They have that right since they’ve pretty much been winning everything in this county since the early ’90s. With arrogance usually comes contempt for your opposition and lack of responsiveness to the people you represent. Which is evidenced by their comments in this article and the lack of opposition by elected Republicans in Williamson County to the TTC and the recent issues involving Frankie Limmer. Unaccountable and unresponsive government is what one-party rule has brought to Williamson County. The Republicans in Williamson County would love nothing more than for Democrats to continue not to field candidates in elections. Often the challenged Republicans smugness shows, it’s almost like they’re offended they even have someone running against them.
Lack of effort, plus self-fulfilling prophecy – we can’t win – has been the biggest impediment to Democrats winning in Williamson County, and, I’m happy to say, that attitude is changing. What all these uncontested races mean, more than likely, is that there are a bunch of untested and possibly unqualified people holding elected office in Williamson County. When all a candidate has to do is convince a very narrow segment, of an already small section of the population – Republican primary voters in Williamson County – it opens the process up to favoritism, “king-making”, and patronage. Not candidates winning elections based on their stance on the issues and who’s the most qualified for the job. What the Democratic Party in Williamson County needs is a “Run.Everywhere” strategy. No more free rides/uncontested races. Without opposition weak and unqualified candidates don’t get exposed and an opportunity is lost. Like the debate that’s going on inside the Democratic Party at the national level about whether we should concentrate our money on a party building effort or a win now/targeted effort, we need to have the same debate in Williamson County. Now is the time for Democrats in Williamson County – and yes there are many more Democrats in Williamson County than most people think – to rebuild the party. This is a golden opportunity. As has been written about in regard to the Redistricting Myth, when you run quality candidates, it doesn’t matter the party-bent of the population, it’s the quality of the candidate that matters most.
One-party government is not what our forefathers envisioned for our country, whether at the national or the local level. They wanted a government responsive to the people, through elected representation. In Williamson County these and most other elected representatives are unresponsive to what the people need and often vote against the people’s best interest. When it gets this bad it doesn’t matter anymore about party it’s about holding those who represent us accountable. You know, checks and balances, and right now in Williamson County there ain’t none. Democracy has eroded in Williamson County and it’s the Democratic Party’s job to bring it back.