To the Editor:
Two old clichés are about to crash into Alexandria on Nov. 6 as we experience our first time of voting for local Council and School Board officials at the same time as presidential and congressional elections. The first cliché is: Be careful what you wish for! Yes, the stated goal was to “increase turnout” and that will indeed happen. But the push by some local political stalwarts has come at a huge cost, measured in “unforeseen consequences.”
One of our most respected and experience politicians, Dick Hobson, warned to no avail that lumping the federal, state and local elections together in one day could have horrible consequences. He was ignored — and unfortunately, his prediction is coming true. The Alexandria issues have become a visual blur, with yard sign pollution along every patch of green. Are we being asked to vote primarily for a name, rather than for a compelling narrative of what a candidate has done and hopes to do?
Our many local issues — like BRAC, the Waterfront, Arlandria, Corridor C, the Beauregard Corridor, affordable housing, density, traffic and transportation — are all lost amidst the clutter of non-stop radio and TV ads for national candidates for President as well as the House and the Senate. The verbal and visual assault offers no insights into a candidate’s skills and talents, and they are permeated with ugly insinuations, innuendo and falsehoods.
No one could have anticipated the upheaval that the January 2010 Supreme Court decision would have on future elections, as it threw out 100 years of campaign finance laws and donor limits and cloaked it all in secrecy, to avoid any public scrutiny. It is expected that this will cost over $1 billion in 2012 — wasted funds that could have been used for education, health and safety, security, creating jobs.
Now people from all over the country — and the world — can secretly submit money to influence Alexandria elections as well as those at the national level. Was this an “unforeseen consequence” or a very deliberate act by a suddenly partisan Court? How can we support the assumption of Justice Anthony Kennedy that the massive infusion of this money at all levels ‘will not affect democracy’? To many, it seems our elections are now simply for sale.
Our little election in Alexandria has to struggle to compete for the limited pool of money for all campaigns and candidates as well as trying to attract the limited number of volunteers. Where once we could closely focus on the needs of Alexandria, those are now drowned out by the onslaught of the federal and state campaigns.
This shift in election scheduling was a big mistake. Our town, which dates back to 1749, needed to enhance voter turnout. It didn’t need to create a monster. You can create voter turnout by offering knowledgeable candidates, plenty of informational forums and significant issues that capture public attention.
The first order of business when the new council convenes in January should be to congratulate the winners — and then to admit defeat on shifting the election to November. Alexandria’s elections are important, and they don’t deserve to be merely an asterisk for a national electoral battle. The new council members should vote a resounding “No” on making this a permanent arrangement and push to move the Alexandria elections back to springtime, as the main event, and not as a sideshow. On Nov. 6, don’t reward those who pushed for this unnecessary shift with your vote. It’s time for a change.
Kathleen M. Burns
Alexandria