If for no other reason than the commercials will stop for a few blessed months, we are delighted to see Election Day hove into view next Tuesday, Nov. 4.
We are sick to death of being bombarded by political sales pitches. Judging by the comments from the members of the public visiting our offices day in and day out, we are not alone.
Running for office is big business, not so much for the politicians themselves, particularly at our local level, but for the advisers, consultants, pollsters, partisans, and ad agencies who make their living on the campaign trail, and for the television, radio, and newspaper concerns that sell the space for their efforts.
Some of this mess is just the nature of the beast. If you want to serve the public, you have to let the public at large know who you are, what you are about, and that you are there, ready and willing to serve.
However, much of what we have been enduring this campaign season is the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Citizens United in 2010, and McCutcheon in 2014, both versus the Federal Election Commission. The specifics of the rulings aside, the effect has been to open the financial spigots wide and disconnect the candidates from the process.
Case in point, we have the Senate District 13 race between Les Fossel and Sen. Chris Johnson.
Both men have been savaged by third-party efforts.
One television ad, courtesy of something called the “Committee to Rebuild Maine’s Middle Class,” depicts Les Fossel as a candidate who favors big businesses and tax breaks for the wealthy over middle class families.
At the same time, a mailer from something called the Maine Citizens Coalition accuses Chris Johnson of doing his part to turn Maine into a “destination welfare state” by opposing “meaningful welfare reform;” asserting not only is Johnson “extremely liberal,” but he also opposes small businesses.
Neither depiction is accurate in that both men’s positions are taken out of context to a criminal degree. This is hardly surprising given the folks behind these things probably have no idea who Fossel and Johnson are, aside from their respective party affiliations.
These ads are designed for generic candidates, to be opposed or embraced by generic voters, and really have little to do with this specific race. This kind of misinformation is a perversion of the campaign process.
This is unfortunate because Johnson and Fossel are both good men. They fundamentally disagree about how the state should be governed, but either one of them can explain in specific detail why they feel the way they do and why they have taken the positions they have; a layer of nuance badly needed in our political arena and one wholly missing from the ads sent out on their respective behalfs.
We don’t have an answer for this. Of all the questions on the ballot next week, none of them have any bearing on the business of national politics. What we can do; what we will do is exercise our right as Americans to exert what control we do have over the process.
We urge to you to do the same.
However you do it, whether by absentee ballot or in person; however you can, whether you have to run, ride, walk, crawl, or swim to the polls, get there and vote.
As a citizen, your vote is still a direct pipeline into the process.
While a single vote by itself may be insignificant, every single voter is not.
