Primary Colors
In 30 days, a very small number of Indiana voters will go to the polls and vote in the municipal primaries. I’ve always maintained municipal primaries are the pee-wee league baseball when it comes to elections, but since it’s your children playing, they are the ones closest to you and the ones you should care about the most.
What’s interesting though about these elections is how they play out. In most places, say Carmel, if you win the primary then you win the general. Marion County and Indianapolis is of course a different creature. But there is one thing you have to ask? Does the municipal election season really need to be as long as it is? Does someone really need nearly six months to run for Mayor of Indianapolis, Lawrence, New Albany, Gary, Ft. Wayne, etc.? If the City of Chicago can elect a Mayor in 6 weeks, surely Carmel can.
This is why when we look at election reform measures, moving municipal elections to the same as off-year general elections doesn’t strike me as the best way to engage voters. Instead, they should be left in the off-year and consolidated. And bring the school boards along with them.
Think about it. You have a primary in March, two months of an intense campaign and then the first of week of May you have an election. And while you’re at it, consolidate the primaries. There’s no real Republican or Democratic way to run a city. Either you get roads paved, trash picked up, criminals behind bars or you don’t. Have a signature requirement to keep the crazies off the ballot and the top two vote-getters will face each other in a run off. If one person gets more than 60-percent of the vote, they are the declared winner.
And by putting school board elections with municipal elections, you turn the attention of the voters to purely matters of local interest. I’m also not above throwing county races in there as well.
I think it would save money, shorten an unnecessarily long campaign season and make life easier for the voters. Would it put more pressure on candidates, probably. But as the old saying goes, “politics ain’t no bean bag.”
What do you think?
