What if they held an election...

and nobody came? That darn near happened just this week. In many communities around Minnesota, elections were held on Tuesday September 11. In the Savage Lands, we had a primary for the November School Board election and in a spectacular show of apathy, 95% of the registered voters in our school district decided that they had "better" things to do than to take 5 minutes to vote.

Now there has been much discord over the last 4 years between the communities of Prior Lake and Savage (who make up the school district), mostly stemming from the boards decision to not rename the new Prior Lake High School (which was built in Savage) to include the name of the city of Savage. There are many here who feel that the school board is "unresponsive" to the community. Yet, in the last two school board elections less than 20% of the voters in our fair communities came out to vote.

Local elections (county level and below) are probably more important to the average Joe and Jane Taxpayer because those elections have a more direct effect on their day to day lives. If you don't believe me, ask Mitch! Every decision that comes out of your school board or city council chambers will have an almost immediate impact on your life - whether it is hiring new police officers or building a new sewage treatment system.

Way back when I was a young voter, I was like that 95%. I didn't see how my single little vote made a difference in the grand scheme of things. In this era of close elections (remember - Mark Kennedy won his first Congressional election by 191 votes) I now see that elections do matter. Mom was right, once again.....

If I can get nothing else across to my fellow conservatives and young people everywhere it's this....voting is important. A lot of good, brave men and women died so that we can have the right to vote. We owe it to their memory to exercise our right to vote in every election.

Who has the power?

The premis of this SF Post article is interesting, but I'm not sure I completely buy into it.

"The YearlyKos Convention is attracting national notoriety for how bloggers are changing the political and media landscape. But while the spotlight is shining on a few of the 1,400 online pundits convened here who draw more readers than a lot of daily newspapers, the next frontier of political blogging will be led by people like Phillip Anderson.
Even though his blog gets only about 1,000 visitors a day - about one-five-hundredth as many readers as the DailyKos.com blog, the namesake of the conference.
Nevertheless, the mop-haired New Yorker already has the state party chair asking him for help reaching liberal voters. His allure: Local bloggers can influence the outcome of small elections. "

When I joined Savage Republican, that was our focus - state and local issues. We wanted to shine a light on the spendthrift ways of our local government. However, surviving on solely local readership is difficult.

While blogging is fun and cathertic for me, I also write (often) to our local papers and I get out and talk to my neighbors. Reading and writing on blogs is fun, but nothing beats neighbor to neighbor interaction - especially on local issues.