Civic Duty

I don't pay much attention to local elections at the best of times, and these aren't the best of times. However, someone I used to work with sent me an email - not me personally, everyone in the university faculty I expect - to promote one of the candidates for mayor. So, I thought I should at least learn who were the candidates. A colleague had put up a useful site which directed to the local paper's listing of candidates.

One candidate doesn't have a web site, so I can write him off. It's 2010. If you can't be bothered to create a web site, I can't bothered to vote for you.

A second candidate wears heavy metal t-shirts on his site. He'd make the council meetings interesting. Still, if you can't be bothered to put on a collared shirt for your web site, I can't be bothered to vote for you. I'm old school that way.

Which leaves the mayor and the challenger. It comes down to: do I think the mayor has done a good job for the last eight years? I wish I had a good answer. I really do.

I don't think it's a good time to be a mayor. I'm not optimistic about the economy. The electorate is in no mood to pay more taxes and fees. I can't see why anyone would want the job. Civic duty, I guess.