You probably can't tell by reading our Opinion page or driving along the streets, but we have city elections in 15 days.
It's election season in the Treasure Valley. Wake me when it starts.
I don't think I've seen less voter interest in a local election in my 6 1/2 years in Boise — or in my 22 years in Idaho communities.
I'm not sure why.
The mayor's office is up for grabs in five of Ada County's six cities.
Boise Mayor Dave Bieter faces Jim Tibbs, the longtime police officer Bieter passed over for police chief, and the closest thing Bieter has to a foil on the City Council.
Eagle's mayor and council races are playing out against a classic backdrop of growth in the West, as city leaders, developers and open space lovers wrangle over developing the pastoral Foothills north of town.
In both Boise and Nampa, three City Council incumbents face opposition.
Yet we've only seen a trickle of election-related letters to the editor — "trickle" being sophisticated journalistic jargon for, oh, not many. Writers definitely have an opinion about Larry Craig, and they were definitely incensed over our Sports cover boast about how Boise State has "owned" Nevada in football. Letters provide an unscientific but pretty fair indicator of the community buzz — or, in the case of elections, the absence of a buzz.
A quick count: Since Friday, I have received 37 submissions for letters or reader's views. Only six are city election-related, and two have asterisks attached. One comes from an Eagle candidate who did not get our endorsement, and one comes from Meridian City Attorney Bill Nary, plugging incumbent Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
So let's give our hard-working letter writers a little benefit of the doubt, and say they've been a little preoccupied by the Craig matter. Campaign yard signs — another bellwether of interest — are scarce as well.
Yup, it's sure slow out there. And I've got to admit I've been scooped in arriving at this conclusion; local government watchdog Dave Frazier lamented the election-that-aspires-to-be-lackluster in a recent style="text-decoration:underline;"> Boise Guardian blog post.
"We would love to be surprised, but this turnout may be the lowest in memory," Frazier writes.
Count me in among the Frazier royal "we." I smell a terrible turnout on the horizon.
P.S.: The Statesman Opinion page will accept election-related letters until 5 p.m., on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Late letters will be published as space permits.
Write early (says the editorial page editor, oozing wistful sarcasm) and beat the rush.
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Pumpkins and Politics
Methinks you'd have a bit more credibility when criticizing voter interest in local races if your very own paper didn't bury the "profile" piece on Tibbs & Bieter 15 days before the election on page two underneath a pic of on "picking the perfect pumpkin"--nice alliteration, btw. Also, your failure to report on campaign finance reports (except Eagle, where those losers can't even raise more than a couple of thousand each). Maybe you should be looking at the "why" in the 5 Ws instead of the "what". Tibbs initially seemed like a formidable opponent, but once his candidadcy didn't materialize, you wrote the race off as boring. Call this race like it is: a retired, disgruntled former civil servant taking on the man whom he blames for ending his career. That's all it is. Tibbs has barely mailed in his time on the city council, while just waiting for this election cycle. Now he's realized that he just doesn't have what it takes to run for the Mayor of Boise. Sure, he's thrown together some half-baked and half-stolen policy initiatives and he cleans up well on TV, but do Boiseans really want SuperFuzz running their city? Bieter has, by most accounts, done a pretty good job at city hall. Sure, a lot of what he does isn't very glamorous and he's old-school enough to call ACHD and the County out to the bike rack after school when he's mad at them, but even your editorial page admitted that his tough positions have moved the city into a better place. What would make this race exciting? More yard signs? More letters-to-the-editor? Short of Tibbs and Bieter standing in the hole at 8th and Main slugging it out, what are you looking for from the candidates?
Our view
10-23-07, Statesman hit it on the head. Funding scheme pits roads against schools.
Scams like this are investigated by the police in civilized/educated countries.
The reason America has bridges falling into rivers, an infrastructure $1.6 trillion behind, $9 trillion debt, Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid, going broke, USDA, FDA, Homeland Secuirty failing, schools underfunded, war in Iraq costing $460 billion after the Pentagon & Bush administration first suggested $50 to $200 billion, & where does that list end?
I'm at it again, campaign finance! Look at what a developer is suggesting & our misrepresentatives are considering. I'll pay for the road to my new commercial deveoplment so people can spend billions of $ but I need the money back! How about you pay for the road & pay the sales tax! As a thankyou for the right to do so in America where the people who fought for your freedom did so without thought of profit, until government enlisted Blackwater! Now Blackwater, same paper, is evading taxes form government contracts?
Our government through this crime of accepting $ from businesses with enough $ to buy a representatve has dug US into a hole we may never get out of & they keep digging. It pays for the camapigns our Senators use to pay their legal fees when they can't keep to themselves in a public restroom! They then become part of the problem, lobbyist!
Why would we continue on a proven path of failure? Look at the numbers. Businesses used to pay 50% of income taxes & we paid the other 50%. Now they pay 10% & we pay 90% yet we can't have $ for education, health care, & basic needs while our self proclaimed war President who missed the $ mark by how many billion, is again asking for as much as he originally suggested the war in Iraq would cost!
Of the 90% of taxes we pay, how much more do we pay in relation to the worth of the dollar? A dollar isn't worth as much as it was in 1940 when we paid 50% so what are we really paying in comparison & what aren't business paying? In other words what does that leave us with? Now how do these businesses expect us to buy their product? Credit cards!I don't suppose our $165k a year representatives have ever taken any $ from the credit card or banking community?
Clears things up a little. Take money from this guy & then from that guy & all those people fighting in Iraq & their families can pay taxes evaded by business with the help of the representatives we pay $165K a year! When schools are underfunded & kids can't get a decent education they enlist to get college tuition but get a public education in reality/death instead!
The next generation of politician's kids go to ivy league schools to become the next generation of politicians to send the next generation of working class kids who couldn't afford college to war for more continued public education!
Social Security taxes have been raided for years, by our representatives! Why? Wasn't to help cover the shortfall from campaign finance was it? Tax cuts to contributors has created most of our problems & the manipulation can't go on forever. Somebody better step up & explain that to people! How about the self proclaimed war president who has yet to win a war! The same guy who has our economy booming!
Where are the people in education, molesting kids? If I could afford to do this full time I could break down everything in the news into how a country, NOT go broke! I think businesses call them annual & quarterly reports. The same buisinesses which can afford to buy the representation we pay $165K a year, to fail or sell US out & profit doing so!
Bad timing
With the presidential primaries and all, it seems like the Tibbs/ Bieter contest is for next springs primary.
Bad on the media, bad on the two campaigns, bad on the populus, and bad on the election rules. Elections should be consolidated better.
No problem.
Just throw darts at the voting machine and see what they hit.