It’s time to take down all those signs and stop writing letters of support for your favored candidate or issue. This election is over, and the votes are being counted.
On the national level it looks like we’ll be choosing between two grumpy old men for president of the United States. This is a sad commentary on the state of our nation when the best we can do in either case is to decide whether we want a guy who can’t walk and talk at the same time or one who talks too much.
Elective office over the years has evolved from a time when serving your nation as a citizen representative to becoming a career choice and an effort to show allegiance to one of the major parties over service to all the people you serve.
From a community service district to running for president, it is money and party loyalty that rules the election process.
Locally, one candidate for 3rd District supervisor demonstrated this in a big way. Her endorsements were from party loyalists, and she acquired a lot of out-of-district contributions so she could continue to press an agenda that causes more harm than good to the average citizen.
Another was criticized by his own party members for not raising and spending more cash.
The third, non-partisan candidate in this race didn’t raise much money and therefore didn’t owe anyone anything except the voters who filled in the bubble beside her name no matter which major party they chose when they registered to vote.
Government from the Community Service District’s, schools, universities, federal, city, and county is one of the biggest “industries” in our county.
Ultimately, the power of public employee union support and out-of-district contributions won out, and Supervisor Joan Hartmann won reelection.
Darcel Elliott, chair of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, said in a recent Noozhawk report: “I felt that my No. 1 job as party chair was to keep the Third District.”
Almost all unions, government employee and private industry support the democrat agenda without question.
Hartmann will have a lot of explaining to do beginning in June when the first of three trials begin to determine how much taxpayer money it will cost to compensate American Medical Response, because she and her colleagues summarily cancelled a legally awarded contract for ambulance services.
Just how much is an open question since this contract had an estimated value of $100 million. We will have to see what the BOS will have to cut from the budget to satisfy this serious error.
Early tabulations seem to indicate that less than 25 percent of voters bothered to cast votes, and press reports say that same-day voting was “sparse.” The percentage will rise as the final votes are counted.
Statewide, the count for Proposition 1, Bonds for Mental Health Treatment Facilities is too close to call with 50.2 percent voting yes and 49.8 percent voting no.
This primary election is over, almost, but did the best person or policy prevail? Since it was campaign donations and union support and not how the candidate would or has governed that seems to be the focus of elective politics today, you be the judge.
There are still thousands of outstanding ballots in our county and millions statewide to count, but it’s safe to say some races have been decided, while others remain unsettled.
Elections are important and in all of them people are chosen to decide issues that impact all of us.