Thursday, February 08, 2007

Open thread: How do our ward heelers win elections?

Theresa Timberlake was at the meet 'n' greet on Tuesday evening. She has filed (as a Democrat) to run for the 1st district council seat currently occupied by Dan "Wizard of Westside" Coffey, who has yet to file, and was once overheard to remark that he would not run again as a Democrat. Presumably, and if true, this leaves open the intriguing possibility of Coffey joining silver tongued Dick Stewart as insurgent standard bearers of the Unreconstructed Minstrelsy Party (UMP), and campaign in ... yeah, you guessed it.

But I digress. Again.

The question arose: Exactly how is it that a bad actor like Dan Coffey wins elections?

Please contribute your thoughts. Keep it clean, okay?

Thanks again to all attending on Tuesday.

12 comments:

SBAvanti63 said...

It's early in the morning and I'm really wanting to go to sleep, but I think my answer would be the same later. Party affiliation led to election which led to incumbency which created name recognition generating voter apathy for a change. In other words, the devil they know is preferable to one they don't. It may also be true that the Dan Coffeys of the world appropriately represent their constituencies, but I think the devil theory has better legs on which to stand. The notion that residents of the 1st district really want what Dan Coffey gives them is just too hard to fathom. Please... I hope...

Highwayman said...

The Dan Coffey's & company of the world win elections by not doing anything substantial but rather by appearing to do something that can be seen.

They show up at silver wedding anniversaries, high school graduations, disaster scenes (after the fact), and funeral homes.

They express their concern for the plight of the elderly, indigent, and financialy challanged when in their midst and proclaim their allegiance to or against whatever cause that is mentioned at such times by whomever is present.

They make an outward show of benevolence at Christmas and election time and promise to fight the good fight to ease their constituents pain.

In the absence of anyone else appearing to care by doing likewise, thes guys have to do litle else to get elected and re-elected.

Though they may in reality accomplish nothing of substance the mere appearance of doing so is enough for that segment of the voting public. Sad but true.

G Coyle said...

Lloyd - I think the word is "pandering".

Christopher D said...

On behalf of the voters;
Complacency.
voting for name recognition, not performance of job duties.

Coffey & Co.;
Obscurantism
electorial stagecrafting
false obsequiousness.

Anonymous said...

I have said it before and actually had it printed in the tribune which as some of you may recall, caused quite a stir.

Party affiliatons are "tribal". You are born into the tribe and it is very difficult for most people to leave.

Many people vote along party lines and not based on performance and/or principle

Ann said...

I agree with Healthblogger--in New Albany, it all seems to be about party affiliation rather than actual performance.

Jeff Gillenwater said...

To augment HB's claim, roughly 40% of the Floyd County electorate who bothered to vote in 2006 did so by filling in a straight party arrow.

That's a sad tell given that the parties themselves never put forth a unified platform on which to base a vote and that same-party candidates often differ radically from each other in both approach and performance.

As I've said before, too, we don't have political parties in Floyd County. We have election machines. There's a difference, whether respective party leaderships admit to it or not.

youthmovement said...

Im new to the site and really appreciate a site dedicated to breaking the old broken style of new albany. Im also probably one of the younger bloggers just to let everyone know that there is some youth out here that does care about the success of downtown NA. Ive also attended a few city county meetings and have to say its an embarrassment to our city to have ignorent people running our city,not to name any names, but the initials DC, SP and BS no pun intended come to mind Im trying to organize some of the youth around here to stand up and be heard for once. Just like to say theres still hope for us yet.

youthmovement said...

Im new to the site and really appreciate a site dedicated to breaking the old broken style of new albany. Im also probably one of the younger bloggers just to let everyone know that there is some youth out here that does care about the success of downtown NA. Ive also attended a few city county meetings and have to say its an embarrassment to our city to have ignorent people running our city,not to name any names, but the initials DC, SP and BS no pun intended come to mind Im trying to organize some of the youth around here to stand up and be heard for once. Just like to say theres still hope for us yet.

lawguy said...

Gina's post reminded me once again of a Saturday Night Live skit from the last election. It involved an exchange between the charcaters playing George W. Bush and John Kerry.

During a debate scene, Bush accused Kerry of again "flip flopping", to which the Kerry character replied:

"George, I'm not FLIP FLOPPING, I'm PANDERING, and the voters deserve a candidate who can tell the difference".

Perhaps you had to see it live to fully appreciate it, but it says volumes about our sorry state of politics these days.

By the way, I'm sorry to have missed the soiree on Tuesday. I had really wanted to attend, but real world issues got in the way....

The New Albanian said...

youthmovement, thanks for being here. I'm 46, and will be the first to say that it's not about my generation, but the ones following.

One small thing ...

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This you've done already.

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Thanks for reading, and for being part of the community here, one that is respectful of the prerequisites of civilized discourse, and that seeks to engage visitors in dialogue.

Roger

Coop said...

As I noted in my very first post on my blog, and others in there response as well, it is voting along party lines that has given us what we have for council.

If voting Democrat is the only way you are going to vote then I guess you’ll just have to live with what you’re voting in. If this Mayor and Council is what the party has to offer I feel sorry for you. There are 8 members of council and the Mayor from the Democratic Party. Do you think they could agree on just one major issue? Not only can they just not agree on any major issues they actually fight and bicker over everything like elementary school kids. Oh wait!! The common elementary school kids aren’t throwing F-BOMBS and accusing each other of being thieves on public record.

So do I believe the answer is to vote republican? Nope!! I do not like partisan politics at this level of government. Neither party across the board is going to have the best people for every job every election. If voters are going to vote for local politics they need at least to be forced to look at issues and individuals before voting. I have seen it work well.

City Council, the Mayor, City Law Director and City Finance Director are all non-partisan positions. Anyone with enough signatures on a petition runs in the primary. Three top candidates run in general election. If you cast a party vote at the top of your ballot you will not be voting for these seats. The voter must read the local candidates names and mark the choice.

This gets the candidates to the people. Party affiliation will not get them elected by it’s self. People who care about the community will at least make an effort to know the candidates.

Now I am not saying the system in New Albany is broke, but the system is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting!!