A Mom's Journey

Small Town Politics

I live in a small town.  Well, if you ask a local we are a village not a town.   Perhaps there are 1200 adults.  According to the newspaper, we have 864 registered voters.  And everything they say about small town politics is true.   Actually, I think politics are similar everywhere but in a small town they are more noticable and everyone knows everything.  

Well this town I live in has been a joke to the surrounding communities for a long time.  Our mayor had to give up her post a few years ago because she was convicted of a crime but come the next election, she won by a landslide. She has been mayor for 35 years except for that short period where she was forced to resign until the next election.   Our chief of police was allowed to resign in a neighboring community because his wife beating became too public.    So, he came here.   He spent most of his time on disability, unable to actually work yet collected a paycheck.   His flagrant disrespect for the law unless he was arresting you was chronicled in the newspaper (published in a neighboring city).  It continued for years with the mayor's full support until finally he was arrested in a neighboring town for driving under the infuence (actually a local cop saw him drinking and get into his vehicle, he then called a village councilman, who then called his son who is a cop in the neighboring town, who tracked him down and arrested him).  We were finally rid of him because he lost his driver's license and therefore "could not perform his duties". 

The village is actually divided into two camps, those who support the mayor and those who do not.  I don't have any particular problem with the mayor as mayor only I don't think she should hold her position due to her conviction.  And I hated the police chief that she supported.  

Now, yesterday was election day. I expected things to remain in the mayor's political influence.   She was running with two opponents.  Therefore the anti-mayor group was splitting their vote.   To top it off the former police chief was running for municipal judge. His wife was running for a council seat. Very depressing. 

Yet this morning, I woke up and my faith in the democratic  process was renewed.  The mayor was ousted by a decent margin and the police chief only recieved a paltry 66 votes.  A new day has dawned for the village.   Now, we'll just have to wait and see what this new group does.

Untitled Comment

10:24 PM, Mar. 22, 2006 .. Posted by Hereathome

You are so smart to know that much about your town's politics. I am afraid I tend to just go my merry way and not even be aware of local politics. I kind of, sort of know what is going on in the national level. It used to be a passion of mine, but I became discouraged with the whole lot of them and my interest waned. Shame on me. :)

Stephanie