Herschlag: Party Affiliation And Local Elections

Deciding to support a candidate for the city council based on their party affiliation can yield some very surprising outcomes.

A number of years ago, the mayor pro-tem was a Republican. In fact, they were a very conservative Republican and had lost a reelection bid for the Executive Council because of their vote on the Executive Council to prohibit funding for women’s health centers (Now, he is a judge).

Their counterpart on the city council was a left-leaning independent who had voted for Bernie twice.

But here is where it gets interesting. The mayor pro-tem, almost always voted in lockstep with the mayor and the administration's recommendations, while the Bernie councilor questioned many issues. During a funding vote, the conservative Republican city councilor voted to spend your money, while the Bernie councilor said No.

There was also a city councilor who wore their party affiliation on their sleeve to council meetings.

They never missed an opportunity to push their party’s agenda at city council meetings. Their ward soon realized their councilor was more concerned with political agendas than with the city's business. They were replaced. It is very unusual for an incumbent Concord city councilor to lose an election. But push your party’s agenda and neglect the pocketbook and day-to-day issues that impact your constituents, and they will find someone who does represent the issues important to them.

When looking for a candidate to represent you, look at the issues that will be coming before the council and then decide — not because of who they support in state and national elections — will this person represent the issues that are important to me, my family, and my neighbors. Does this person understand and respect our city's history and character?

Let me be clear: Party affiliation can matter and can predict how a candidate will approach issues. It is very likely their affiliation will matter in state and national elections. Should you vote for a free stater whose goal is to dismantle government, I wouldn’t. But an R, D, or an I after your name for a position on a local governing body isn’t necessarily the predictor that it is on the state and national level.

Remember what issues are important to you. We all want to live in a community that is welcoming and provides an array of services that enhance our quality of life. But at the same time, it is important to remember the basics. Safety, roads, a good education for our children, and being able to afford to live here.

Affordability should be at the top of the list. Affording a place to live. Having the funding to pay for safety services. Being able to maintain and plow our roads and sidewalks. And we should be able to provide (and afford) services that make our city more livable. Recreational opportunities, a library…

Voting for those who have served for years and expecting them to do something different is the definition of insanity. Just read the Concord Monitor’s post-election article’s quote from at-large Councilor Fred Keach:

It was a lesson, he said, that politics works like business — “you modify or you get left behind,” — and that city councilors must listen to those who didn’t back them.

“What I saw tonight was anti-establishment: we’ve got to do something different. Personally, I’m not going to do a lot, but I recognize that message as people are not happy with the status quo, so yeah, you’ve got to listen.”

So choose party over common sense at your own peril. Continuing to support candidates who are responsible for the current state of our city and continuing to believe councilors who promise you they will lower your taxes, even though they are the same ones who have raised them year after year, just doesn’t make sense.