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Low-Key Campaign
Posted
8-6-1999
Here we are in August and the race for county wide elected offices is extremely
low-key. We are less than ninety days from electing two new judges, at least two new
county commissioners, a new sheriff, a new recorder of deeds, and several other county row
officers, yet there has been little public attention to the election. From my perspective
and that of other incumbents the less said is probably okay, but I would think some of the
challengers would be trying to generate some publicity about their campaigns. To put it in
perspective, by February in the primary election, candidates have announced their
intention to run and are usually very busy on the campaign trail.
When I ran four years ago, I took a week
off and just kept going because I believe summer can be just as important as the period
between Labor Day and Election Day. This time I'm staying busy on weekends and several
nights a week, but my weekdays have been focused back on the job of managing county
government. While it is a great advantage being an incumbent, campaigning is definitely
more difficult when working full time.
I'm not sure what issues will emerge as the
primary focus of the General Election, but I think each candidate's ideas will receive
more scrutiny. That will happen because there are only four commissioner candidates rather
than the large group of fifteen that ran in the Primary Election. Each candidate will have
to share their ideas about governing and I believe attention will still be on who supports
more competition for professional services, and who believes that just keeping things the
way they are is acceptable. It will be interesting to see if anyone goes on the offensive
or if the Republicans try the old line that the Democrats have been running Westmoreland
County for such a long time that we need a change. Anyone who has followed county politics
knows that the coalition of one Democrat and one Republican have made the political
decisions for the past fourteen years.
Since I've taken office a new level of
attention has been paid to stopping the growth of county government, holding the line on
spending, and managing proactively. It will be interesting to see which of the other three
candidates articulate a platform of continuing the difficult task of increasing
productivity and holding the line on spending. The budget deficits in the near future will
require a true commitment to fiscal discipline and will be the overriding challenge for
the next Board of Commissioners. I'm not sure how much anyone on the outside of county
government understands the situation and if they did, perhaps they might not be so eager
to serve as a County Commissioner.
While we face rapidly diminishing reserves,
it is interesting to watch people from both parties in Washington and Harrisburg falling
over each other to figure out how to give tax breaks because they have big surpluses. I'll
bet you don't see county governments anywhere in Pennsylvania even thinking about lowering
taxes. I'm not crying the blues about the job of county commissioner; it is just a tough
job and will only get tougher. I don't think there are very many elected officials in
Washington or Harrisburg that know or care about the increasing challenges local
governments are facing. It is easier for them to try to look like heroes and reduce the
taxes they apply while your county, local and school taxes keep going up.
So get ready Tom, Scott, and Maryln enjoy
the campaign because the real work begins in January and it isn't going to be easy. |
