The Times Nostrum
None of the Above is not on the ballot this November. There is however a choice on the ballot for the Assembly Delegate from Yarmouth. It's not a traditional partisan race with a choice between a Democrat and a Republican, but it does allow the voters to choose between an incumbent and a challenger.
In a not so visable position, the Assembly Delegate (AD) serves in the legislative branch of county government, the appropriating body of Barnstable County. Each one of Barnstable County's 15 towns sends a representative, but each delegate gets a vote proportional to their town's population.
Barnstable County resident voters are probably more familiar with the County Commissioners who are elected to 4 year terms and represent everyone. Each AD comes up for election every 2 years, and this year there is only one AD race, in the town of Yarmouth.
Running for the post is the incumbent, Charlotte Striebel, former Selectwoman from Yarmouth The challenger is yours truly, Spyro Mitrokostas, former Executive Director of the Cape Cod Technology Council. Both candidates bring various qualities and experience to the task at hand, but that is not the subject of this article.
What is, is the recent editorial in the Cape Cod Times, not recommending either candidate to the electorate. So disparaging was their criticism, that they went so far as to recommend leaving the ballot blank to send a message.
Everyone I have spoken to (who has read the editorial) is stunned. The suggestion left many agog at the obstinacy, to say the least. It's hard to know where to begin to respond; defend the candidates, the institution, or the electorate, from the newspaper's own subversion.
The editorial's description of the candidates' positions was substantially correct. The editors, however, seem to be confusing a difference of opinion with holding no opinion of value.
There is no litmus test for this office. You don't have to beleive in regionalism to serve in the Assembly, just as one does not have to espouse Federalism to serve in Congress. You can be an advocate for state's rights. Same holds true for the County Assembly. You can be a town first candidate.
The ADs are elected by the towns' resident voters to advocate their towns' interest. The County Commissioners, on the other hand, have to be advocates for the region's needs. And the budget process is where the tension between the two branches plays out.
The Times should take their own advice and read the report of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Wastewater. I beleive my position, of locally based solutions aided by County resources, is much closer to the Commitee's position than the Times'.
We may disagree on the usefulness of the Cape Cod Commission, but the Times is so blinded by their fealty to the Commission, it fails to see that almost every elected official (and candidate), has dismissed the idea of a county wide wastewater treatment agency with revenue raising authority. Sorry, read the report.
But I digress. The real point is that the Times missed the point about the race for AD intentionally. Where there actually is a competitive race for an Assembly, they advocate the voter not vote. Where is the editorial outrage that there aren't any races in Barnstable, Dennis, Falmouth, Bourne, Sandwich, Mashpee, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Chatham, Truro, Wellfleet, P-Town? Those resident voters have no choice. But it's OK to tell Yarmouth voters not to vote?
By the way, for the record, I grew up in Yarmouth and graduated from DY. I went to college, graduate school, worked in Boston for a number of years, and came back to the Cape 14 years ago. I've lived and served in public office in Mashpee and Brewster before I moved back to my hometown of Yarmouth, to raise my kids, start a local business, and care for parents who still live in the old neighborhood.
I think I know what Yarmouth voters want from their County government. Far from not knowing what Yarmouth' needs are, Yarmouth doesn't need to find better candidates, it needs to know that it has a choice in candidates, as it does in newspapers.
Maybe we should make the election ballot a referendum this year. Why stop at the Assembly Delegate's race? If you don't like the choice of candidates in any given race, send a message, blank it. Let's make a blank vote on November 2nd, a vote for the Cape Cod Times.
In a not so visable position, the Assembly Delegate (AD) serves in the legislative branch of county government, the appropriating body of Barnstable County. Each one of Barnstable County's 15 towns sends a representative, but each delegate gets a vote proportional to their town's population.
Barnstable County resident voters are probably more familiar with the County Commissioners who are elected to 4 year terms and represent everyone. Each AD comes up for election every 2 years, and this year there is only one AD race, in the town of Yarmouth.
Running for the post is the incumbent, Charlotte Striebel, former Selectwoman from Yarmouth The challenger is yours truly, Spyro Mitrokostas, former Executive Director of the Cape Cod Technology Council. Both candidates bring various qualities and experience to the task at hand, but that is not the subject of this article.
What is, is the recent editorial in the Cape Cod Times, not recommending either candidate to the electorate. So disparaging was their criticism, that they went so far as to recommend leaving the ballot blank to send a message.
Everyone I have spoken to (who has read the editorial) is stunned. The suggestion left many agog at the obstinacy, to say the least. It's hard to know where to begin to respond; defend the candidates, the institution, or the electorate, from the newspaper's own subversion.
The editorial's description of the candidates' positions was substantially correct. The editors, however, seem to be confusing a difference of opinion with holding no opinion of value.
There is no litmus test for this office. You don't have to beleive in regionalism to serve in the Assembly, just as one does not have to espouse Federalism to serve in Congress. You can be an advocate for state's rights. Same holds true for the County Assembly. You can be a town first candidate.
The ADs are elected by the towns' resident voters to advocate their towns' interest. The County Commissioners, on the other hand, have to be advocates for the region's needs. And the budget process is where the tension between the two branches plays out.
The Times should take their own advice and read the report of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Wastewater. I beleive my position, of locally based solutions aided by County resources, is much closer to the Commitee's position than the Times'.
We may disagree on the usefulness of the Cape Cod Commission, but the Times is so blinded by their fealty to the Commission, it fails to see that almost every elected official (and candidate), has dismissed the idea of a county wide wastewater treatment agency with revenue raising authority. Sorry, read the report.
But I digress. The real point is that the Times missed the point about the race for AD intentionally. Where there actually is a competitive race for an Assembly, they advocate the voter not vote. Where is the editorial outrage that there aren't any races in Barnstable, Dennis, Falmouth, Bourne, Sandwich, Mashpee, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Chatham, Truro, Wellfleet, P-Town? Those resident voters have no choice. But it's OK to tell Yarmouth voters not to vote?
By the way, for the record, I grew up in Yarmouth and graduated from DY. I went to college, graduate school, worked in Boston for a number of years, and came back to the Cape 14 years ago. I've lived and served in public office in Mashpee and Brewster before I moved back to my hometown of Yarmouth, to raise my kids, start a local business, and care for parents who still live in the old neighborhood.
I think I know what Yarmouth voters want from their County government. Far from not knowing what Yarmouth' needs are, Yarmouth doesn't need to find better candidates, it needs to know that it has a choice in candidates, as it does in newspapers.
Maybe we should make the election ballot a referendum this year. Why stop at the Assembly Delegate's race? If you don't like the choice of candidates in any given race, send a message, blank it. Let's make a blank vote on November 2nd, a vote for the Cape Cod Times.
Editorial Available at www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/edits
nos·trum (nstrm)n.
A medicine whose effectiveness is unproved and whose ingredients are usually secret; a quack remedy.
Source: The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
posted by CapePolitics @ 3:49 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
If ever the self-contradictory phrase "a vote for apathy" applies, it's here. In this case, a vote for "none of the above" is a vote for political apathy, something which is epidemic on the Cape and across America.
For heaven's sake, the residents of Yarmouth and the Cape Cod Times should be glad that they have a choice, no matter how unqualified the Times feels the candidates are, and instead of telling the voters to make no choice, the Times should be devoting ink to featuring each candidate's views so the voters can choose one or the other.
The Times seems to feel that Mitrokostas' lack of unconditional support for the Cape Cod Commission automatically rules him out as a decent candidate. The Times may be interested to hear that the Cape Cod Commission is not a holy grail. From the moment of its inception, it has been controversial and far from universally accepted by the Cape Cod residential and business community. If the Cape COd Times doesn't know that, than it doesn't know its readers.
I didn't have the patience to go through the password hurdle but just to give full disclosure, this is Bob Dwyer, Republican State Committeeman for The Cape & Islands.
I just wanted to make mention here that this blog, supposedly authored by a Republican is taking a lot of swipes at Republican candidates... not that we ever were in lockstep like some other political organizations... but it does call into question your real political affiliation. The many phone calls I get regarding your letters to the editor attest to the concern Republicans have about your commitment to the Party.
That said, I really just wanted to thank you for uncovering Demetrius Atsalis' actual record - not your intent but the result nevertheless.
You stated that if Atsalis is elected he may be able to pass an ed reform formula. As we on the right side know, he has been erroneously representing himself as the "author of new education funding formula" - two issues, (1) his aide wrote what they consider a new formula and (2) it isn't a new formula.
His claim to educational funding reform along with other claims of "district funding secured" needs a closer look by the voters. For example, I think Representative Shirley Gomes would take issue with Atsalis' claim of securing funding for the Duffy Center as claimed on his literature.
I could go on - as you well know - but I have an election to win.
Bob
I didn't have the patience to go through the password hurdle but just to give full disclosure, this is Bob Dwyer, Republican State Committeeman for The Cape & Islands.
I just wanted to make mention here that this blog, supposedly authored by a Republican is taking a lot of swipes at Republican candidates... not that we ever were in lockstep like some other political organizations... but it does call into question your real political affiliation. The many phone calls I get regarding your letters to the editor attest to the concern Republicans have about your commitment to the Party.
That said, I really just wanted to thank you for uncovering Demetrius Atsalis' actual record - not your intent but the result nevertheless.
You stated that if Atsalis is elected he may be able to pass an ed reform formula. As we on the right side know, he has been erroneously representing himself as the "author of new education funding formula" - two issues, (1) his aide wrote what they consider a new formula and (2) it isn't a new formula.
His claim to educational funding reform along with other claims of "district funding secured" needs a closer look by the voters. For example, I think Representative Shirley Gomes would take issue with Atsalis' claim of securing funding for the Duffy Center as claimed on his literature.
I could go on - as you well know - but I have an election to win.
Bob
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