On Being An Elected Official

I have been out of public office now since January, 2007, so I have had plenty of time to reflect on my years in public service – both the good and the bad.

The bad part is really something that most people never think of happening.  I’ll start out with the beginning of a campaign.  One organizes, of course, and hopes one will win.  But the public, including the media, expect you to know everything including the names of the newest threat to agriculture in the area, including but not limited to the glassy-winged sharp shooter.  This has nothing to do with guns, by the way.  And they question all words that you say.  Also, people will say the most outrageous things to you as a candidate.  At the end of a rather tiring day years ago as a candidate some lady approached me and said, “I can’t vote for you because you are related to large ranchers”.  I’m afraid I snapped back with, “Not really.  We all watch our weight carefully.”  I doubt if she understood, but I felt better.

But, if one manages to get elected, the media and everyone else assumes that day you have become absolutely, suddenly brilliant, and that you are perfect.  You are treated like royalty, given special treatment and perks.  Of course, if you happen to be a human and lose your temper, the sky falls.  That is unacceptable, especially for a liberal.  Outrage is acceptable for conservatives. 

It is this royal treatment, I think, that is the downfall of a lot of elected officials.  They begin to believe the hype.  And that is dangerous.  Because of this putting up on a pedestal the elected official believes that whatever he or she does cannot be wrong.  Accepting gifts from constituents begins to be OK because, after all, you are special.  The gifts grow, and I truly believe that when the public and media find out that these gifts have been accepted and are outraged, many elected officials are stunned at this.  After all, they deserve these gifts.  They are special. 

I recently gave a small talk to a small group of women about being in office, and I emphasized that elected officials need to have a have a rational solid core from which they operate.  Not as an ideologue, but a strong sense of the moral and/or ethical fitness of actions.  How one determines if a candidate has this core is something I haven’t figured out yet, but it should be essential. 

On 1/6/2007 I was still one of the most brilliant people around.  On 1/8/2007 I had lost all of my intelligence because I was no longer in office!!  This is a little confusing, to say the least, but since my sense of who I am did not come from being in office, I soon overcame it.  The one thing that I really missed was my own private, designated parking space in our downtown area.  Now that one perk was almost worth all of the rest!