After the heady 2008 when the presidential race drove up voter turnout and political involvement locally and across the nation, a simple municipal election seems like a letdown.
The offices up for grabs seem humble: city and borough councils, township offices and school boards and most of the races are uncontested. Voters are also being asked to select state Supreme, Commonwealth and Superior judges and retain others. When you compare it to last year’s history-making election, Tuesday’s is a snoozer.
Things aren’t always what they seem to be. Take a few minutes and read the voters guide stories we’re publishing today and you’ll find out there’s a lot going on and some awfully important local offices to fill in Tuesday’s election. Among them:
• Sharon council — Two council members elected Tuesday will be part of the city’s transition to home rule and be on the first council to rely on a professional manager to run the city. The race features a pair of Democrats and what appears to be the first-ever independent candidate to run for council.
• Hermitage commissioners — A full slate of candidates are seeking the chance to steer the city into the future. A new garbage contract that’s irked some, ongoing land use issues and the city’s finances seem to be the biggest issues. Next year’s census is likely to show that Hermitage is now the largest city in the county and the men or women elected Tuesday will be charged with making the biggest the best.
• Mercer County treasurer — the only countywide office up for grabs. It doesn’t seem that sexy, but Republican blogger turned Democratic candidate Roberta Biros has made the race interesting. Republican Ginny Steese Richardson is running on her 16-year record. Mrs. Biros is promising to update the office but she’s really presenting a challenge to the county’s political hierarchy.
• District justice — Independent candidate Ed Bardella is giving recently appointed District Judge Brian Arthur, who won both parties’ nominations in the spring primary, a race in the general election. The winner will administer low level justice in the Greenville area for the next six years.
• Hermitage, Sharon and West Middlesex school boards — Candidates like to say they’re doing it for the kids and this year’s pool is no different, though the boards they are running for face myriad challenges. Sharon must decide what to do with aging Case Elementary School. Minor controversies over the online Canyon College and the superintendent’s contract have made waves in West Middlesex. Hermitage directors will be working with a new superintendent. All will deal with perennial property tax questions.
• Greenville council — A crowd of hopefuls are seeking seats on council as the borough deals with a recreation crisis and struggles to pull itself out of a state program for distressed municipalities.
• Brookfield schools — Voters can make Joe Pasquerella go away or they can clone him on Tuesday in a race that pits the controversial former board president, his wife and daughter against current and former board members and one of the people behind an effort to toss him off the board.
Now we don’t know about you, but any one of those races is a decent argument against those who say “I’m not going to vote because there’s nothing on the ballot.”
There are dozens of races down the ballot. The people who win them will affect the taxes you pay, how your kids are educated and the quality of life you enjoy or lament.
That alone ought to be enough to draw voters to the polls Tuesday.
But in case that’s not enough, we’ll appeal to your better nature. Right now, thousands of American soldiers are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting and dying in an attempt to give those desperate people a little piece of the freedom we have.
Are you comfortable telling those soldiers that you’re too busy, disinterested or ignorant to fulfill that duty?
