Article published November 06, 2009
Voters' choices cast a pall on postelection day
THE morning after the election was cold, dreary, and dank. As I walked my dog, overcast skies began to spit rain. Perfect. The weather mirrored my mood.
For me, there were no surprises in the off-year election on the national, state, or local level. In part, that's what made it so depressing. Pundits made a big deal about the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey being a referendum on the Obama Administration, but that was just them filling air time on cable.
The Republican who won in Virginia had a double-digit lead over a no-name Democrat, and the unpopular incumbent Democrat in New Jersey, who lost to another Republican, has only himself to blame. Voters responded predictably to the lesser candidates. A referendum on Barack Obama? Not so much.
The only interesting race nationally was in upstate New York where a Democrat will represent the 23rd Congressional District for the first time in more than 100 years because Republicans allowed themselves to be divided and conquered. Defeat in Maine was a harsh blow to the gay marriage drive, but voters in Washington state narrowly approved an expansion of rights to gay couples, suggesting that a few liberals may live outside Seattle too.
But I had other worries on election night. I feared Ohioans would vote with their gut instead of their minds; I was right. They bought the slick campaigns of smooth operators eager to bypass the legislative process and embed themselves in the state constitution. Casino owners got a constitutional monopoly to get rich as voters let themselves be hoodwinked into promises of jobs. What a travesty.
Big agribusiness also pulled a fast one on gullible Ohio voters to keep factory farms humming without Humane Society interference. They duped the public into believing their campaign was about preserving idyllic family farms and affordable food, instead establishing megacover for megafarms in a constitutional amendment.Thanks to passage of Issue 2, Ohio's industrial farming community has a constitutionally protected lock on regulating the treatment of farm animals with an industry-dominated board to define animal care standards.
But disheartening as it was to watch Ohio voters fall for this statewide chicanery, it was downright distressing to see my local school levy lose for the third time in a year.
Certainly, asking for money when the economy is bad and worse is a recipe for rejection. When job losses blanket a region in a way that leaves communities shellshocked with unemployment, a tax increase of any kind is out of the question for many voters.
But not all reasons for rejecting a levy can be so easily explained. Canvassing door-to-door for the levy a couple days before the election, I got an earful about why schools shouldn't get one thin dime from the community they serve.
Yet any parent or concerned citizen can learn the real story about teacher salaries, district budget management, and the effectiveness of school administrators beginning with the superintendent. By studying the actual numbers involving state funding, local spending, pared budgets, projections, and cost comparisons with surrounding districts, many of the myths that masquerade so convincingly as truth are dispelled.
Then, with financial need substantiated by facts, the levy decision boils down to the value a community places on education and what it is willing to sacrifice for that investment. Or voters can take the less thoughtful approach at the polls and allow themselves to be swayed by panting pundits, misleading campaign commercials, or knee-jerk neighbors.
Their shortsighted gullibility was sadly evident in the dismal aftermath of Tuesday's election.
Marilou Johanek is a Blade commentary writer.
Contact her at: mjohanek@theblade.com
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