Halloween and the election

The nice thing about election time is that one has to go through Halloween to get to it. It used to be our city elections were held in June (until about a quarter-century ago) so the public had no spook day to prep them for the big day.

Of course, elections back in the ?70s and ?80s did have a Halloween aspect to them, with usually more than a dozen candidates running for council, reminiscent of a big-stakes horse race packed with the front-runners and a whole lot of wannabes. Now our local fields are much more restricted and much more focused. The wannabes are getting it out of their system on Halloween.

Many of you reading this have probably already voted, but I?m one of those who actually enjoys going to the polls, and must admit it is more enjoyable today with about half the population having already voted by mail. No waiting, plenty of time to chat and gossip with the poll workers. It may well be that poll voting will sometime soon be a thing of the past. It would be a regrettable loss of a venerable institution.

This year?s ballot is, once again, crammed with special-interest ballot propositions and measures. If there is one word of advice this grizzled columnist can offer, it is to approach each and every one as one would approach a package in the mail full of ominous ticking sounds.

Way back a century or so ago when reform was all the rage, the advent of the initiative and referendum was hailed as a milestone in the crusade for good, clean government. The I&R allowed the people to bypass their often bought-and-owned legislators and enact measures to restrict the ability of those legislators to get too fat at the public trough.

For a great many decades, California led the nation as a model for clean and responsive government. Even Petaluma?s own city charter, adopted in the late 1940s and creating the city manager form of government, was devised by a Board of Freeholders against adamant opposition of the council, and voted in by the public.

Then, about three decades ago, there were those in the crowded public who figured out that the ballot box could be a great way to get a self-serving proposal passed into law.

One only had to first get enough signatures to place a measure on the ballot, and those in the business freely acknowledge that getting the signatures is often the easy part. Then, a good salesperson, or an effectively trained group of sales folk, could hit the shopping centers with petitions, ask or promise most anything without fear of retribution, and get the signatures.

So, most initiatives that hit the ballot originate with a vested interest of one kind or another. It may be a bond issue for a specific industry sponsored by members of that industry who stand to gain the most. It may be an ideological point being advanced by folks who cannot win their point in the legislative arena. The propositions can be backed by TV advertising that speaks to concerns the public has, but not necessarily concerns resolved by the proposed proposition.

There are two good examples of this on this year?s ballot. Proposition 7 purports to be a renewable-energy-wrapped-in-green-goodness proposition, but the fact is it is opposed by the length and breadth of the environmental community as well as most everyone else. It is a pork-barrel initiative to benefit a small sector of the energy business.

Another example is Proposition 8, which would make if constitutionally prohibitive for gays and lesbians to marry in California. This measure would really solve nothing, but would discriminate mightily against a fairly significant segment of our society and impose the views of some on the total population.

And locally, we have Measure K. I?ve ranted enough about this one in the past, so I will say only that before you vote, put a check on the emotions and analyze it carefully. You may not be getting what you think when you vote yes.

If you?ve already voted, good for you. If not, have fun and Happy Halloween.

(Don Bennett, a business writer and consultant, has been involved with city planning issues since the early 1970s. He serves on the Sonoma County Planning Commission. His e-mail address is dcbenn@aol.com.)