How About Running for Office?

What would it take for you to enter politics? For starters, you already must have skin thicker than a tortoise’s shell, that’s the first requirement. Because for sure, you’ll be assaulted with brickbats of every description from your opponents who, it may come as a surprise, might be your best alleged “friends.”
Next, you must have an idea, even an inkling, that you could make some small difference by placing yourself in the public arena. Without an ideal, there is really no reason to enter the fray other than to collect a paycheck, which many already do.
You must possess much positive ego. If you’re a timid soul, time might improve your lot, but it always helps to have a healthy double dose of ego.
It certainly helps to like to be around people. Loners don’t do very well in the public eye. Even if elected to a municipal office, one will soon find the phone will ring off the hook complaining about (1) trash collection or something related (2) dogs or other animals that annoy. If you like people, and have a knack for problem solving, it’s possible you might make it.
Jokingly, I’ve often thought it an asset for a political figure to be single, since what might seem “one or two meetings a month” soon turns into a daily time sponge. Married folks may do well in politics, if the spouse is very liberal and doesn’t mind being “semi-single” for a few terms.
While above is true for most elected positions, it seems especially true for state legislators. Trenton is an unforgiving 97 miles from here. Add to that distance numerous committee assignments and sessions that must be attended to conduct the public’s business. Then, as if that were not sufficient, events within the district (never mind the required party events also suggested) consume an ever growing portion of one’s life.
How about the money? Would you enter politics for money? Well, that depends on what job you seek. Freeholders make about $18,000 annually, municipal officials make around that, some more, some less. State legislators, like senators and assemblymen make about $35,000. That doesn’t even pay for the gas traveling back and forth to Trenton. By the time you buy tickets to various events, the fat paycheck begins to shrivel.
Then, too, it’s not for the money that many who hold positions of power do so. Many are self-employed, don’t have to punch a clock, or have an independent funding source.
I have it from fairly good sources that, should a reader have a burning desire to see his or her name on the ballot as a Democratic freeholder candidate, the door is open wide. Be advised, it’s a challenge, to say the least. There is living proof (Tom Tucker and Jeff Van Drew).
Democrat John Mruz, was named to replace Van Drew when he moved to higher office, but was unsuccessful in his bid to retain the seat. There’s the evidence Democrats can be a freeholder. As of right now, it’s an all Republican board. Thus the opportunity is wide open for two gutsy people who would like to place their toe into the political bathtub that is Cape May County politics.
It would also be an asset for anyone toying with the notion to enter politics, if they (or their families) would be able with withstand the vicious attacks that seem the nature of the beast. It’s been said quite often, “This is not the way politics is supposed to be.” Anyone who breathed through the last battlefields known commonly as campaigns for any office will attest that politics is like mud wrestling, only worse.
Therein lies the reason why many good souls opt to sit on the sidelines and “let someone else do the dirty work.”
What ever became of campaigns when there were certain parameters that were set early in the game, and were not crossed? Now, unless a person is spotless (HA!) from kindergarten through the present, the opposing party is sure to find some scintilla of evidence to hold against the person. They will noise those wee shreds abroad, and tout the human frailties of their opponents to the hilt.
Forget what the real issues might be, perhaps having places to take trash on weekends or opening municipal hall on certain evenings for those who work and cannot get there through the day. Forget that the person may have stellar accounting skills, and could read a budget backwards and still save a buck, if he slugged a bully in sixth grade, it will surely come back to haunt in a campaign.
If Cape May County residents expect to see truly better times ahead, in the political arena, it’s time to look inside as well as outside. Let us declare it is time for the political party chiefs to convene a pow-wow and admit (oh my gosh!) there are some Democrats who have great qualities, and would be an asset, and yes, there are Republicans who similarly would be great candidates.
We need to have a sampling of both in this county as we enter the untested waters of 2014. We cannot let fear hold us back. We must discover those among us who would “stick out their necks” and carry the baton for this county’s voters.
Competition makes America the great place it has been through history. All one party representation is not beneficial. Any honest person will admit to that fact. There are no pearls without a particle of sand that rubs and rubs that oyster into something it never imagined it could be.
Would you want to enter politics? This county, this state needs good people to step up. If enough good people entered the field, maybe, just maybe, the lot would improve. Is there a possibility of that ever happening?