"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Election options

Talk about the election has begun.  It will be upon us son enough.

Nnames  are being crossed off.  Minds made up.

The eternal truth about elections is once again being overlooked.

An election is about electing. Not about  rejecting.

For a candidate to be rejected,  someone else must be elected.

If  no candidate for Mayor comes forwrad, the incumbent will be acclaimed.

He has made friends in all the right places.

The fat carcase of the municipal treasury has been royally engorged.

Without a mayoralty contest, the election will engender little interest.

 With no opportnity for choice, turn out  at the polls  could fall  as low as 19 per cent.

In that scenario, all  incumbents have an edge.

The Mayor's chair is  key.

Electing someone without experience or proven  ability  has not turned out well.

The   picture outline  is already clear and irrefutable

There's them that count and them that don't. //

We all know where we fit .

The simple question is, will  a candidate come forward ?

Will there be a viable alternative?

Of the figures strutting the stage  in the last three and a half years, who do you see ?

What are our choices?







8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Mayor is only one vote.

Anonymous said...

We're all making plans for Nigel!

KA-NON said...

While the Mayor may only be one vote, because the role is both full-time and (relatively) highly paid, it affords the incumbent the luxury of consistent and un-fettered access to top-level staff. If the one occupying the seat chooses to interpret the Chief Executive role as it may be done in a private, commercial setting, it can (as we are seeing) lead to an (hidden) influence on things far greater than the 1 council vote.

Anonymous said...

The last Mayor was an incumbent who had royally served her followers. Funny how that played out. I wonder if anyone can remember what month that ' Help Wanted' ad for a new Council appeared in the Auroran.

Anonymous said...

We all have potential candidates in mind but, speaking just for myself, are letting individuals decide for themselves. It is too early to ' out ' someone unsure of themselves.
What ever became of that ' Helen ' who registered to run last term > That showed how . you could cut an announcement and then decline to run.

Anonymous said...

Methinks the Mayor is going to have to put together a totally new team when he runs. The motives for their support may be very different from those who supported him the first time around. I will watch with great interest.

Anonymous said...

14:56
What's a Nigel ?

Anonymous said...

It seems there is a new candidate. Anthony Pullano has told the Auroran he is going to run. He says he hasn't decided whether to run for Mayor or as a Councillor. Which puts him even with Cllr Gallo.
I don't know anything about him but had never hear of Geoff Dawe either.