The Same Old Same Old
The manner in which the two major parties' candidate slates have lined up for the upcoming County Legislative elections in November is indicative of many of the problems we still face in our politics.

By and large, the candidates everybody's getting are the candidates they've always gotten. And each district is being dominated by the largest town in that district.

Here in Olive, we're been grouped with Hurley and a big chunk of Marbletown in a three-legislator district. From a Democratic perspective, you might as well call it Parete-land, since we'll be running two of the County Democrats' Chairman's sons and their friend, Peter Kraft of Hurley, who ran a close race two years ago. On the Republican side, we've got old stalwart Robert Wilkins, of Shokan, who was named recently to replace Ward Todd for the remainder of his term starting July 1; William Beesmer of West Hurley, who ran poorly last time; and Linda Bertone, of Hurley, whose husband/campaign manager is a leading light in the Right to Life and Conservative parties, and who herself switched parties after winning as a Democrat last time around.

In neighboring Shandaken and Woodstock, which have been grouped with Denning, Hardenburgh and part of West Saugerties in a sprawl of a district, Woodstockers will be facing off: local party chair Brian Shapiro and political activist Toby Heilbrunn, a loyal Democrat and former councilwoman, versus incumbent Republican Michael Stock and Tim Keefe of Woodstock, the latter a town cop. As such, the selection seems a replay of so many of the races of the past 36 years, since the legislature was first created to replace the old County Board of Supervisors. Woodstock dominates. The smaller, more rural towns of the county end up without representation.
Unfortunately, this is just the sort of problem that was being predicted by those supporting, and briefly winning approval of, single member districts for the county's towns. They were worried about towns, and whole rrural sections of the county, being left without representation in county government.

The problem with the new configuration is that it's both parties' fault. The Republican majority because of their cynical manipulation of the politics of political representation to ensure their majority rule. The Democrats for caving in and not fighting harder for single member districts, which they'd briefly won approval of.

And it gets worse. Both parties should be blamed for kowtowing to old allegiances, running candidates because they're owed a run, and not necessarily because they're the best person for the job of representation.

The people who are running, in our district and others around the county, are not bad people. But they all have agendas, and now they have party loyalties.

There's also a quiet message in the ways in which things are shaping up... that newcomers must wait in line before they can come forward to volunteer themselves to enter the political fray. You could almost call it a new-fangled Old Boy system. Same as always...

Furthermore, the result of the ways in which our county legislative elections are shaping up is that the underlying ideals of our Democracy, and our Republic, are being thwarted. The former is supposed to be about government by and for the people, through direct vote, if you're in an ideal situation, or via direct representation, if you're living in the Modern World. The way things are currently shaking out, we're getting government by the two parties. Which have their own agendas, primarily being to gain, or hold on to, power.

Republics are meant to be governments ruled by law, by constitutions. It's been so long since we've heard anything about such writing in this county, we may just be seeing a return to an earlier definition of the ideal: any government that's not monarchy.

We deserve better. Here in Olive, we'll get through... the candidates aren't bad. For now. They come from all parts of the new district.

But over in Shandaken, things have gone from bad to worse. No longer do we have a Marian Umhey or Ward Todd to fight our geographic battles for us. All that's been left are politics as usual.
We should all aim to do better.