CITYWATCH - Candidates running for office spend considerable time reminding us of the issues we face … and promising us they will fix them. They rarely tell us HOW!
CityWatch columnist Jack Humphreville has been campaigning for some time on this fact of election life. Jack’s idea is that candidates be required to submit a detailed plan to voters on how they propose to fix the messes they tell us we are knee deep in.
Understanding the limits of the political system and the office you seek, Mr/Ms. Candidate, show us HOW you will succeed where others have failed. If you think the current level of public safety is in order, show us where the money is coming from to pay for it, what services you will cut and HOW you … with your single vote … can make that happen.
As Robert Green … LA Times Editorial Board … writes: “When a candidate is running for office, it's fair to expect that person to have given this most important issue some thought. It would not be out of line to expect a five-point plan, or a white paper, or at least some well-thought-out priorities and an agenda for achieving them.”
Perhaps this kind of pre-office accountability should be mandatory for candidates for all offices.
An example of candidates promising much but offering little or nothing in the way of HOW they will keep their promises was highlighted by the Times in its report on the Editorial Board interviews with Council District 15 candidates Joe Buscaino and Warren Furutani.
The Times report is here. Political writer Ron Kaye’s analysis is here.
They are both worth the read. The Times E-Board experience supports the need for requiring more than empty bullet points from our candidates. And, until there’s a ‘New Rule’ demanding it, voters need to step up and do the demanding.
(Ken Draper is the editor of CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected]) -cw
Tags: elections, candidates, Council District 15, Joe Buscaino, Warren Furutani, LA Times
CityWatch
Vol 9 Issue 102
Pub: Dec 23, 2011