Something interesting coming up in a local election?
Category: Local... Politics...
Posted Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 06:41 PM [GMT-6]

Update (8/17): Well, how about that? It's not so hypothetical after all.

So, hypothetically speaking, say you're an incumbent city councilman who's decided to seek another term, and you find out that your opponent will be a local college student just a few years past voting age. Do you:

  1. Essentially ignore the opponent, spend as little money as possible, and count on "business as usual" to get you re-elected, but run the risk of being upset if not downright humiliated at the polls?
  2. Engage the opponent as if he's got a fighting chance, spending a bunch of money to deflect the threat, but run the risk of appearing to be a bully?

Just curious. You know, hypothetically speaking. ;-)

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Comments

Eric, I'd take the young student seriously. Precedent? We had a teenager make a run for city council in Hereford - and win. At 21, he won a seat on the Edwards County Commissioners Court. Later, his family came to Fort Stockton where he was elected to the FSISD School Board. the Pecos County Commissioners Court, and the Mayor's office.

Posted by: Jeff at August 16, 2007 06:47 PM

I'm with Jeff - take him seriously. In all honestly, if you're a politician worth your salt (I know, we can debate the OxyMoronishness of that later), you're going to treat someone running against you with dignity - which means actually running against them and not dismissing them.

Plus, if you just dismiss someone like that, chances are you're going to tick off a lot of your young constituents, even if they were gonna vote for you anyway. Ageism is a bad thing.

Posted by: beth at August 16, 2007 08:20 PM

I agree with Beth which is great cause now I don't need to think up an intelligent comment hehe.

Posted by: Rach at August 17, 2007 12:56 AM

I think the young person discussed has a plausible chance - if he garners the young around him, who knows what will happen? (Especially with the low voter rate around here!)

Posted by: Janie at August 17, 2007 07:37 AM

I would take him seriously. If for nothing more than giving the youth in your area ideas of what they could do with their lives.

Posted by: Becky at August 17, 2007 03:24 PM

The buzz I'm hearing is that he'll at least pull in some votes that wouldn't otherwise even be cast. Whether that's enough – or whether that demo can stay focused long enough – remains to be seen.

I had a chance to discuss it with Berry Simpson tonight and elected to not even bring it up.

Posted by: Eric at August 17, 2007 08:55 PM
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