What's Wrong With Indiana Politics By Way of Anderson

Yes, I am being more noisy than usual. The following set me off.

 Recounts done; Anderson’s mayoral race set

The Democratic mayoral primary also featured three candidates. The recount completed Thursday found Broderick won by 41 votes over Rodney Chamberlain, 1,820 to 1,779.

A low turnout initially estimated at 17.52% was widely blamed for the recounts. Anderson is a city of 55,100 people that’s about a 50-minute drive northeast of Indianapolis.

I look at that number for the Democrats. First, there are only 3,599 Democrats in the City of Anderson. Second, there are only 3,599 Democrats who cared enough about their candidates for Mayor to vote in the primary.

The last vote totals I recall for an Anderson general election had around 10,000 people deciding who ran the city. It certainly was not a number even approaching half of the city's population.

I see, again, two possible answers to this:

1. The citizens of Anderson are a cloddish, apathetic bunch who do not care who runs the city.
2. The political parties do not give the citizens of Anderson a good enough reason to turn out to vote.

Nothing can be done about number one. Especially with the quality of Indiana's educational system.

The second has a solution, but one that will entail lots of hard work.  First and foremost, there must be an engagement with the citizenry. They must be listened to and they must be persuaded that what they think will be taken seriously by politicians and parties. 

The Democrats have the ability to pick up voters - with the right candidate, with the right message.

The right message? We understand their problems and can fix them, but the fix must come with you voting for us.

sch 6/25