The latest folly performed by city government was a needless $26 million giveaway of land, cash, expenses, and promises to a local
developer. What prompted it is unclear, as it resulted from a legal settlement,
but it appears that Bossier City’s government negotiated in bad faith with the
developer, which became public only over a dispute
about curb cuts. That cost each citizen about $414 that could have been
avoided.
Yet even with this latest reminder of a string of bad decisions over
those years, with many of the same people who made them running for reelection this
time out – comprising six of the seven council districts and the mayor’s office
– only one council member opted out, only one drew a challenger, and the only
other one with competition saw a rematch of a previous special election that
did not feature an incumbent, plus another challenger this time. This in and of
itself was a sign of apathy that only two competitions out of eight occurred,
and only one featured a politician who played a part in the bad
decision-making.
(Interestingly, some have argued that this apathetic situation is a sign that Bossier City has provided good
governance, apparently leaving satisfied customers out there in the electorate. By
this same logic – voting back into office the same people or they get no
competition as a sign of approval by voters – this assumes that Germany in 1933
when their voters gave the same old National Socialist Workers Party leaders the electoral
plurality or elections in the Soviet Union where frequently candidates ran
unopposed and got nearly every vote with a 99 percent turnout were models of
outstanding governance to which Bossier City should aspire.)
But to make matters worse, of the two contests that did get votes cast,
turnout was low to abominable. In the more competitive of the two, which
featured short-time incumbent Larry Hanisee in a rematch again Tommie Harvey
and Mischa Angel, only 1,057 made it to the polls with nothing else on the
ballot, or turnout of 22 percent.
That’s poor given it was the higher-stimulus by the spirited nature of the
campaigning and Harvey had lost to Hanisee previously by fewer votes than
fingers on a hand.
Yet these District 2 results make that electorate appear valorous
compared to the no-shows of District 1, where the incumbent who helped make bad
spending choices in the past, Scott Irwin, was challenged by Mike Beam – but
almost in name only. Irwin, plugged into the good-old-boy network, campaigned
vigorously with signs, fliers, and phone banks. By contrast, about all that was
seen out of Beam was a few yard signs, most popping up on election day in
illegal locations.
The district electorate responded with an underwhelming 9.5 percent
turnout giving Irwin about a 3:1 win with just 545 votes out of 8,275
registrants. And this is a city where overall voting age population
registration is just 67 percent compared to the 84 percent (and when adjusted
for demographic factors – Louisiana’s nonwhite population is three percent
higher than Bossier City’s – the spread is nearly 20 percent lower
registration). This confirms a central problem of democratic capital in Bossier
City – a significant portion of the electorate that is disengaged politically.
Perhaps this is exacerbated by elections held when they are, in the
spring a year after a presidential election. Almost never on any Bossier Parish
municipal ballot at this time is there any other kind of non-municipal
election. Maybe in changing election dates to coincide with other national,
state, or local elections this might capture more interest among people, who in
their voting behavior do seem as interested as those in any other parishes in national
or state elections (turnouts being typically as high or higher than the state
average for these).
However, the real problem is too many in Bossier simply don’t care
about local government. Many are short-timers in the area, and others moved
there to get away from Shreveport including its politics even as their professional
lives continue to be in Shreveport, so neither have interest in local affairs
of a bedroom community. And they don’t understand the damage the Scott Irwins
of the world have done and what more they can do as long as they can have a
quiet suburban life, for it has been potential only squandered mostly by Irwin
and the other incompetents (aside from the negative impact of the 2009
budget meltdown) which hopefully does not eventually turn Bossier City into
another bankrupt Stockton, CA.
3 comments:
Don't you get it you idiot? No body agrees with your self gratifying ass! Loser.
Anus breath, your students have to buy your Bulls*&t but nobody else does. I am delighted that you have a miserable life! Your class is the worse that I have ever suffered through. I am glad The Times fired you!
Who in the hell do you thing you are to chastise the public on how or if they use their voting rights you pompous jackass?
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