Ordinarily, the election for town meeting representative here in America's Home Town is a fairly mundane event. In most of the fourteen precincts, we are lucky to have enough candidates to fill all of the open seats; not what you would call robust public interest. with this in mind, I decided to toss my hat in the Precinct 5 ring. If elected, I felt equal to the task and wanted, in a small way, to contribute something to the Town's efforts at self-government.
It was easily accomplished. Just gather a few signatures and submit the forms to the Town Clerk. I filed in late February, just before setting off to a two-month sabbatical in the sun. Returning home in early April, however, I found that the earth had undergone a subtle shift. Three incumbents, plus myself and three other newbies, all vying for three open seats. This thing had turned into a campaign.
I won't drag my readers through the tedium of analyzing voter lists, printing and distributing materials and the saga of the lawn signs. Suffice it to say, the effort grew to almost blot out the sun. Last Saturday, we stood at the polls in the rain, waving to the voters, driving through the gauntlet of waving signs. I have to admit it was exciting, but yet, exhausting at the same time.
We had worked hard at getting out the vote. Due to the small number of contested seats, a low turnout was predicted and that was exactly what resulted. Our precinct turned out better than most, but town-wide it was not our finest hour, with barely 14% of the voters showing up to vote. I was blessed with a solid core of supporters who went out of their way to be heard. This great wave of support made it all worthwhile.
Amid the many congratulatory messages I received was a notification for the first caucus meeting in two weeks. As I start to climb the learning curve on municipal budgets and finance, I will remember all those who "showed up" for me. Read the whole story in today's Old Colony Memorial
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