Election Day Recap: What’s Next for The Capital Region?
By Pat Gareau, Staff Writer
Emphasizing Election Day over consistent political engagement leads to a culture where politicians prioritize campaigns and put to the side actual decision making. This system creates politicians that say exactly what will build the most support in their district based on polling, instead of what may be right.
But Election Day 2013 has come and gone. Now, with representatives selected, the next step is holding them accountable.
Voters around the Capital Region elected candidates to fill local offices, including mayors, town supervisors, board members, sheriff and Supreme Court justices.
In Albany County, the Democratic Party took the election. Kathy Sheehan won the city’s mayoral election with 84 percent of the vote. The Democrats won nine city council seats by lopsided margins. Towns in Albany County such as Guilderland, Bethlehem and Colonie also favored Democratic candidates.
Schenectady County elections were also primarily won by Democrats, with the exception of one city council seat and Rotterdam’s town board.
Saratoga and Rensselaer Counties had mixed results. Democrat Joanne Yepsen won the mayoral election in Saratoga Springs by a close margin. But Republicans scored victories in the races for Clifton Park town supervisor and county sheriff.
In Rensselaer County, Republicans won five out of six county legislature elections and three of six seats on Troy’s City Council. However, Democrat Daniel Dwyer won the mayoral election for the city of Rensselaer.
In more rural counties such as Columbia, Greene, Fulton, Montogomery, Warren and Washington, Republicans generally fared better than Democrats, which is a symbol of the divide between urban and rural communities.
Regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in power in your local town, it is important for our political health to continue to track local officials after the election and hold them to a high standard of ethics and productivity.
Our society too often follows politics for one day and then proceeds to forget about those that were elected the next day. This can lead to a politician taking advantage of their position, like former Halfmoon Supervisor Melinda Wormuth, who was recently charged with corruption for extorting campaign funds and accepting bribes.
However, that is just one problem.
The government shutdown was largely led by Republicans in the most conservative district in the United States, who knew that jamming the health care law as much as possible would score points at home. Similarly, Democratic congressman can easily convince their liberal districts that the Republican Party is completely at fault, which deflects from real concerns about the effectiveness of the Affordable Care Act.
When politicians are allowed by their constituents to show up once every year or two and frame the argument, it becomes easier to mislead voters.
On the other side, if the public were to stay diligent and track their elected officials constantly, then our government would be obligated to operate at a higher standard. We’d have smarter elections, smarter representatives and smarter government.
This principle is as true at the local level as it is at the national. With congress leaving many frustrated, it becomes even more important that communities function well. In some ways, local politics are far more personal than national legislation. Any steps we can take that improve our local government will help ourselves and our neighbors directly.