Commentary 

Post-election Punditry

Delegate Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum

Results of this year's elections will be known by the time you read this column.  With the extent of the unknowns and the downright craziness that has been going on this election season I am not on Thursday of the week before the election going to predict the outcome.  I can say with some sense of certainty that by the time you are reading this there will have been a great sigh of relief that the political campaigns are finally over.  And the turn-out is likely once again to have been disappointing.  Absurd charges, personal attacks, and unrelenting campaign ads, robo telephone calls, and slick mailers and roadside signs may turn off more voters than they inform.  Records amount of money topping more that four billion dollars and doubling the amount spent in any previous off-year election will have been spent.

Without knowing the vote count I can predict that both sides will have declared victory.  The political party of the president in these off-year elections historically loses seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate.  These losses will be termed a victory by Republicans and the various splinter factions they represent this year.  The bigger the number, the greater the victory is that will be declared.  But if Democrats do not lose the Senate or suffer a calamity in the House they will be declaring victory.  Does the President move forward with an aggressive agenda or slow down in anticipation of his re-election campaign in 2012?  Stick around for the speculation on this topic for many months.

Is there a better way than current political campaigning?  There is an entire industry of consultants and service providers who make a living with the system as it is.  They come with catchy and clever political slogans, polling results, and opposition research on every facets of the opposition's life.  They preach that every charge must have a response and the bantering begins.  They say it is not enough to have worked hard in office; negative campaigning is necessary to point out the opponents weak spots regardless of how shallow.  They charge high fees and help set up the campaign fund raising apparatus to pay their own fees.  Sometimes the resulting campaigns do not resemble the candidate or the community.  Too much of what happens can be predicted; voters have come to expect it. 

Why do election campaigns continue to be run the way they are?  Well, they including negative campaigning that most people seem to abhor seems to work.  At least that is what the consultants sell.  And who is the candidate who is willing to take the risk to not run an aggressive campaign when being attacked by an opponent.  Who is willing to be first to lay down the sword?  to be willing to not engage in negative attacks?  to be respectful of the community's environment and not put up flimsy plastic road signs in the median and on the roadsides?  to be respectful of people's privacy and limit the number of telephone calls?

I greatly respect the voters of Reston for their willingness to inform themselves before voting and to vote on the basis of information rather than emotions or rumors.  I have been in political life for a long time, but I have never learned to enjoy political campaigns.  That's why I try to work very hard in office every year rather having crash sales campaigns in election years.