Mayor for Life

My understanding is that there are elections coming up in a couple of weeks. I am anxiously looking forward to the results in a couple of mayoral elections, one a primary, the other, well, we run things a little bit differently here in Texas.

In my old stomping grounds up in Chillicothe, Ohio, there are primary elections, followed by a general election in November. Handy arrangement. The parties put forward a number of candidates for various offices and then distill down to just one candidate to run per office in the November general election. In the Republican primary for Mayor of Chillicothe is someone I am quite familiar with, one Jack Everson.

I like Jack and I wish him well. I went to school with him, I understand that he's had a successful career in business and now he wants to give back to the community by being a public servant. I have no doubt that he would make an excellent choice and that eight years hence, once he has served a couple of four year terms, he will have laid the groundwork for someone else (perhaps younger and wiser) to come in and provide the city with the leadership it needs.

Jack would have trouble at least in this part of Texas where if one manages to get elected to public office, they will essentially hold that office for life.

Take Allen, Texas mayor Steve Terrell (please!). He was mayor and had been mayor of Allen prior to our arrival in Texas some thirteen years ago. He's still the mayor and he's running for re-election again. Since Texas seemingly has no effective primary election cycle (having to do with the fact that Democrats are strongly discouraged from having aspirations for public office) the candidate elected in May wins the whole shebang.

So saying, we will once again anoint Steve Terrell as mayor of Allen still yet another time, despite efforts of malcontents like me to vote the guy out.

I have nothing personal against the man. Honestly. I frequent his business, I see him in the store where I work from time to time and believe me, he seems like a personable man. But for some reason I just can't hand someone control (albeit limited) over the city I live in for more than two terms or eight years. There comes a point where having an election becomes a futile exercise. We may as well save our money, stop having elections and appoint some of these politicians as (Insert name of office here) For Life!

Governor (For Life) Rick Perry just won his third term - full term, that is, last fall. He'll preside over our State Senator (in since before we got here) and our State Representative (in before we got here) at the Statehouse in Austin where the names seldom change. We're looking for ways to save money, folks, so let's do it by eliminating those pesky elections!

Anyhoo, wee're back to the polls here in a couple of weeks. Good luck, Jack. At least you'll have the sense to realize that when you get into office, you will be a servant to the people instead of someone who expects the people to be servants willing to hand you control of a multi-million dollar enterprise time and time and time and time again.

Be Seeing You!