What Do You Think About Nonpartisan Elections?

Nonpartisan Council elections would benefit Buffalo

By Joseph Golombek Jr.
Updated: 04/02/08  6:36 AM

T ^hecity, county and state have been ruined over the past 40-plus years because of politics — bad politics. Individuals are elected to office with more loyalty to their political parties and personal ambitions than to the residents of their city, county or state.

The way we elect our political leaders empowers party bosses at the expense of the public. Due to party enrollment and gerrymandered districts, few elections are competitive. Winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to election in Buffalo.

In the North Council District, there are approximately 32,000 residents, about 10,000 of whom are Democrats. In a typical primary turnout of 25 percent of registered Democrats, a candidate who garners 1,251 votes is all but guaranteed to win in November. How sad that such a small number of votes can control a race in a Council district.

To address this problem, I have proposed that the City of Buffalo begin holding nonpartisan elections. All registered voters would be eligible to vote in the September election (which would no longer be, solely, a primary). Currently, only members of political parties are eligible to vote in the primary and that is only if there is a primary election.

In a nonpartisan election, which many communities utilize, all candidates who qualify for the ballot are allowed to face voters, regardless of their party affiliation. The strength of candidates’ ideas, not their party label, should be the deciding factor in an election and, as such, party affiliation should not be indicated on the ballot. If a candidate garners 50 percent of the vote plus one, he or she would automatically qualify for the November ballot. If no candidate collects the required number of votes, then the top two candidates would face off against each other in the November election.

Many members of the public are fed up with political parties and register to vote as a “blank” instead of choosing a political party. Political party bosses like elections with low voter turnout because it allows them to shape and influence election results. Opening up September elections to all voters, including those registered as “blank,” will increase the number of voters, the number of candidates and hopefully the number of ideas discussed during an election.

In order for Buffalo to grow and change, we need to change how we elect our political leaders. I fully expect that the party bosses, who like things just the way they are, will strongly oppose moving to nonpartisan elections.

When I began the push to downsize the number of Buffalo Common Council members, I was told repeatedly that Council seats would never be eliminated. Through a great deal of persistence and public support, the Common Council was reduced by four members. I expect the same battle will occur regarding nonpartisan elections. Because the future of Buffalo is worth fighting for, I will do all that I can to push the idea of nonpartisan elections forward.

Joseph Golombek Jr. is the North District   member of the Buffalo Common Council. 

What do you think about the idea of nonpartisan elections? Is there really a difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to providing police and fire protection, garbage pick up etc.?

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Comments

[hank kaczmarek]

Joe
If I hadn't known you since you were in short pants, and speaking as your friend, I'd say you've lost your mind.

NOT because what you propose is ludicrous. It shows contemplation aforethought and is undoubtedly a means to release Buffalo from the grip of the Democratic Party that has strangled it nearly to death for 47 of the last 51 years.

But as long as you have a city full of die-hard yellow dog Democrats, who believe in FDR style government social collectivism with an unbreakable determination to maintain the status quo at any cost, and one of the highest percentages of unionized workers of any spot in the country, you've got your work cut out for you.

When a lady on Buffalo Rising says she won't vote for Kevin Helfer for Mayor because "HE MIGHT INVITE GEORGE BUSH TO TOWN", instead of his ideas and initiatives on the issues, I see the whole place as a lost cause, and it breaks my heart.

Rabid, frothing, vitriolic political partisanship in WNY is part and parcel of the mess that the area has become. The Democratic Party and Organized Labor have been in bed together so long that both fear with quaking dread any seperation.

Bottom up government (As Free Buffalo Proposes), not Top Down government that has destroyed the areas prosperity, is a real-life possibility for changing the landscape. But nobody seems to want to get out of their Lazy Boy, their Barstool or their bench at the Union Hall long enough to do anything about it.

It's pathetic and sick and it breaks my heart.

So I will remain, lost in the wilderness of North Carolina, waiting for the locals to finally shake off the chains of partisanship that have come to enslave them to a broken and failed system.

[Jay]

Wow, great comment. Probably the first and only commment on a blog worth reading.

[Richard]

Rather than come up with new ideas that will give Golombeck twenty seconds of "isn't that a great idea" , I wish he would return to his roots and sell the Marine Drive Towers to the highest bidder. Anyone who has been up near the top in those "taxpayer subsidized " apartments would need only two seconds to realize that some people have a million dollar view for only pennies. The idea that a poor city might sell this potential gold mind to the lowest bidder could only have originated in a public building like City Hall. This latest idea of Joe's is an attempt cover up his change in values and ideas.