THE CHILL FACTOR FOR CANDIDATES

We know that most people who run for office in states and localities do so because they have a passion for doing good for the people they will represent. After all, there’s not a lot of money to be made, the hours are long and they’ve got the pressure of quickly handling unpredictable natural disasters.

But we’re concerned to hear that perhaps the gratification of doing good for people may not be enough anymore. In fact, according to an article in The Conversation by Charles Hunt, Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University, “In dozens of states, an increasing number of state legislative seats are going completely uncontested by one of the two major parties.”

Hunt attributes this phenomenon largely to the uphill battle confronted by a representative of a party that isn’t backed by sufficient voters to mount a vigorous challenge. We’re confident that he’s right. But we believe there’s something else afoot – particularly for top-level elected executive branch positions.

We used to think idly about putting the knowledge we’d acquired in writing about states and localities to practical use by running for a position of some sort. But now, we couldn’t imagine even considering that (notwithstanding that we kind of like what we do already).

The world out there has simply gotten way too tough, with the nation’s political polarization generating an arduous battle for getting things done. In fact, it’s gotten so bad that we find ourselves filled with joy whenever we see an initiative for which there’s been bi-partisan support.

What’s more, the political attacks that were always part of any campaign have become fiercer and more filled with attacks on individuals, with less attention to the policies for which they stand.

As Elaine Cariati, chairwomen of the Meriden (Connecticut) Republican Town Committee told the Ct. Examiner recently, “Social media has become a ruthless business. They post whatever they want about any candidate and that goes for either party. They go after the candidates and they will say whatever they want and there’s no consequence.”

That’s not the only problem with social media. As we wrote not long ago, “Our greatest concern is that the amount of incorrect information that is out on the internet can make civic leaders want to tear their hair out, as misinformation builds up from one resident to another until the sheer mass of falsehoods makes it appear to be the truth. Ultimately, this has the potential of diminishing the already low level of trust in government, and that doesn’t do a community any good.”

A great deal has been written about state preemption of local decision-making. And then, there’s the federal government’s increasing encroachment on the ability of mayors, other local leaders and state officials to run their own shows. It’s been dubbed a “war over federalism.”

Beyond the incursions of ICE, in which federal employees have effectively invaded a number of cities in search of illegal immigrants, another troublesome example has taken place in at least ten  cities, including Charlotte, North Carolina and Washington D.C. where national guard troops have been called in from elsewhere  “despite local crime data showing reductions in violent crime, including homicides, in several of those cities,” according to an article in Capitol B, a non-profit news service.

Though the Trump administration appears to have backed off from this effort, it still leaves a chilling effect. The problems just start there. Notwithstanding the sentiments – or even the party affiliations -- of elected officials there’s a sense that the federal government can punish states or cities that don’t go along with its policies. Depriving mayors and governors to make those kinds of decisions themselves neuters their capacity to fulfill the agendas for which they were elected.

Even were the federal government is not a part of the picture, this is a particularly tough time to be in elected office in a city or a state. High on the list is the fiscal cliff that many are now confronting as pandemic-based federal aid runs out, even while expenditures on things like health care are rising. These days, no matter how politically astute a city or state leader is, many are faced with an impossible choice: raise taxes or cut services.

As Farhad Omeyr, Program Director of Research and Data Analysis for the National League of Cities. explained, “since last December, which was the ARPA cliff, cities’ 2025 budgets have actually started to tap into their fund balances. . .Cities are still feeling downward pressures because of the impacts of tariffs, inflation, infrastructure needs and so on.”’

Further, a great many elected officials are about to face one of their least pleasant tasks: negotiating new labor contracts or coming up with the cash to pay for old ones that were negotiated in the aftermath of the pandemic.

We’re optimists by nature, and think that there are still plenty of competent, capable industrious people who will choose to run for office.  And we don’t want to overstate the case and argue that we’re on the edge of a crisis. But we fear that as the life of an elected official is less and less attractive, we may run short of the kind of people that we all need running the show.  

#StateandLocalGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #StateandLocalLeadership #StateLeadership #CityLeadership #LeadershipChillFactor #ElectedOfficialChillFactor #StateandLocalPoliticalCandidateShortage #StateandLocalPublicAdministration #PoliticalCandidateChillFactor #IntergovernmentalRelations #StateandLocalUncontestedElections #UncontestedCityElections #StateandLocalSocialMediaUse #CityGovernmentSocialMediaUse #SocialMediaMisinformation #StateandLocalTrustInGovernment #TrustInGovernment #StateEncroachmentOnLocalGovernment #FederalEncroachmentOnLocalGovernment #StateandLocalFiscalCliff #PoliticalPartisanshipAndStateLocalElections #CityCrimeExaggeration #NationalLeagueOfCities #TheConversation #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc