One Can Hope

If you had a notion to run for the seat of Freeholder as a Democrat here in Cape May County, you should be, very soon, heading to the County seat to pick petitions that, once completed with the appropriate number of signatures, would enable to get your name on the ballot for the June primary election. The deadline is at the end of this month.
If history is any indicator, there will probably be no Democrats coming forward to walk that plank… no no… too harsh… to avail themselves of that opportunity. There is time and someone may proudly step up, we will just have to wait and see.
In the past five decades, out of the 80 or so Freeholder seats up for election, only three Democrats have ever won a seat. One Democratic winner changed his party affiliation to Republican immediately after the results were official, another quit after one term, and a third moved successfully on to higher office. The rest all lost, including yours truly in 1980 when an inspired and hard fought campaign was crushed by the Republican machine. If memory serves, I lost by around 5,000 votes. About 32,000 voters cast ballots that year. That is respectable, but not really close. Other elections before and since reflect similar results. Some much closer, others not – and still only those three wins on the D side.
One obvious reason is the registration disparity. There are about two Republicans for every Democrat in Cape May County and it has been that way (in 1980 it was two-and-a-half to one) for as long as anyone can remember. The general trend throughout the nation is reflected as well here in our county; Independent (non-affiliated is a better description) voters out number either the D’s or the R’s.
When faced with those disproportionate numbers and freeholder election history, potential Democratic candidates have to think long and hard about running. A good campaign takes time and money. That translates into hours away from family: knocking on doors, handing out brochures at shopping centers, attending covered dish dinners (or some culinary indigestible equivalent) and writing releases or composing ads for the media, and for the new darling of campaign protocol, social media.
It would be more interesting and somehow more expected if voters had a choice. There is one option. A non-vote sends a message. When the final results are determined, even a candidate with no opposition will, or should, look eagerly at the total number of voters casting ballots and subtract his or her own number to see just how many voters, with only the one candidate running, still could not bring themselves to pull the lever.