My New 'Alderpersonic' Role

Well, the election is behind us. Sincere thanks to my supporters and voters for allowing me the chance to contribute on the City Council of our fair city. Thanks, too, to Zac Ploppert for running a strong race. Any contested race forces the candidates to refine their arguments and helps inform the voting public.

Not that running for alderperson of a small-ish town is a big deal in the scope of things, but I am glad it’s over. For what it is worth, though, I have reflected on the campaign and share some thoughts here.

First: The term “alderman” bothers me. It seems quite sexist. Merriam-Webster shows the origin to be “Middle English, from Old English ealdorman, from ealdor parent (from eald old) + man”. It seems to errantly connote that a woman is not capable of filling the role. I have been working to use “alderperson” when I can, but it still seems clumsy. Modifying versions of “aldermanic” seem insurmountably clumsy. I asked our two alderwomen about this and it seems it bothers me more than it bothers them.

Second: Patch.com is an interesting media outlet for local politics. Candidates (or anyone with Internet access) can put out their thoughts and positions unfiltered and unedited. It seems that a good many local candidates made fair use of the forum. That said; I have been counseled to steer clear of Patch in the future on the claim that it is starting to fill the role of sowing seeds of partisan division (and I dislike anything partisan). I am withholding judgment, though. Certainly the anonymous commentary can be something of a bug light attracting swarms of ... uh ... “less-than-well-stated” thoughts that can tend to veer hard right. (Take a look at the caption suggestions of any cartoon involving our president) ... but there is thoughtful commentary too, and name calling from the left wing is not unknown. Would the tone be better if Patch limited commentary to only verified users using their full name? Sure, but participation would fall off precipitously. For the time being, I will invest most of my Patch time above the comments section. Good luck to Rick Nagel as he tries to ride that bull and tame it into something less Fox News and more NPR.

Third: While I am pleased that I won the election (it kept the mood up at my election night bash at Aurelio’s Pizza), I am particularly pleased with how I won the election (notwithstanding my awkward performance at a hosted “debate”). I never pandered or used platitudes. I never over-simplified my rhetoric into sound bites. Early on, I was considering treading lightly with topics that I wrote about here on Patch for fear of offending/alienating blocs of the voting public. My good friend and campaign manager sagely advised me to do no such thing. "Don't become a politician" and “Write about what you feel strongly about,” he would say. In the end, I wrote pieces that certainly had to alienate some religious conservatives, neo-conservatives, certain strains of libertarians and, most certainly, supporters of the second-place mayoral candidate. Heck, I even publicly stated that I might not necessarily vote with the popular will of my constituents! One would think that to be electoral suicide. Yet I still prevailed despite knowingly giving away those votes. I like to think that we have a more thoughtful electorate than the 24/7 news outlets might lead us to believe.

Thanks again to those that supported my "alderpersonic" bid and to anyone that voted. I look forward to serving the 1st Ward and the city.