For those running for elected office, experience matters. Each candidate’s pitch to voters includes a lengthy biography of accomplishments, awards and pertinent endorsements from those already working in the public sector. The pedigrees are familiar and, often, so are the faces. It can be maddeningly cyclical.
When glancing at this year’s local election roster, you will see some of the same names, and they’re not just the incumbents’. A former county commissioner is running again for a seat on the commission. A former undersheriff is coming out of retirement to run for county sheriff. Oh, and the former sheriff already sits on the county commission; he’s just not up for reelection this year. I know, it’s hard to keep it all straight.
These may be the most qualified, and even the best, candidates on the ballot. There are a handful of fresh faces running for office in the Flathead Valley who are also worthy of consideration. But there is still a persistent lack of interest among the most successful in the private sector to campaign for office.
Again, there are exceptions. While I don’t agree with all of her decisions, I think Tammi Fisher has proved capable and, just as important, autonomous in her job as Kalispell’s mayor, a position she earned in a landslide election last year. True, she was given a boost by her political connections, but Fisher was, and still is, a successful attorney in the private sector.
There are drawbacks to running for local and statewide office. For one, many of the elected positions, like Fisher’s, are part-time jobs that pay just a few hundred dollars a month. Most local city councils meet once a week, if that, while state lawmakers are elected to serve 90 days in Helena every two years.
Since there is little compensation for these jobs, those who seek them must be retired or have flexible work schedules and also be willing to subject themselves to intense scrutiny. If you’re successful in the private sector, the first question that must be considered: Is running for elected office worth it?
Serving on the county commission, the most powerful government body in the Flathead, is full time and does pay a decent salary. So do the positions of sheriff, county attorney and judge. Still, many of these races are failing to attract the number of candidates one would expect. The county attorney job is a specialty post, but I’m surprised it is uncontested, especially in this economy.
The relative disinterest by the most accomplished in the private sector in local politics can extend to the highest elected offices in the state. While both Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sen. Jon Tester ran grassroots campaigns to unseat incumbents, remember that the former ran for U.S. Senate before becoming governor and the latter was the president of the Montana State Senate. Both were already politicians.
It’s also common for incumbents in our highest elected seats to face little competition at all. In 2008, Republican state Sen. Roy Brown, who was expected to at least make a showing against Schweitzer, was thoroughly trounced, 65-33 percent. That same year, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus won by an even larger margin – 73-27 percent – over “Republican” Bob Kelleher, who had previously run as a green party candidate.
This year, Congressman Denny Rehberg is up for reelection and I doubt anyone in the field will give him much of a challenge. Some of them lack the resources to get their name out, but there isn’t a star in the bunch either.
There’s a rumor that Rehberg is gearing up to challenge Tester for his Senate seat in two years. That would leave open a Congressional seat the same year Schweitzer moves out of the governor’s mansion. Would Schweitzer run for the U.S. House? It wouldn’t surprise me if he did. Which means the 2012 ballot could – once again – look a lot like previous years.