The Board of Elections is a funny place. There are two of everything- and they should be color coded. It’s our crazy way of running elections- where we put the two parties in charge- who then make it their sole goal to keep any other parties or independents out of the action.
A disconcerting recent example: my campaign treasurer, the esteemed Greg Hunter, made a request for some campaign finance reports from previous elections and past election results broken down by precinct.
After 4 weeks of hemming, hawing and delaying- I got on the phone. Records were ready in under 4 hours.
There will be a call made to the BOE chief tomorrow (he was out on Friday) to start an investigation on why the delay. The answer should be interesting.
I’ve always questioned why the partisan Board of Elections has anything to do with City Commission elections- which are supposed to be run by the city- and entirely non-partisan (as if that is really possible). I’ve also wondered why every form needed to run for office isn’t readily available online- as a PDF. It is in Franklin County.
But, the net upshoot of this entire ordeal is, we’re now about 4 weeks behind in starting our requests for donations and planning our campaign. Not to worry though, I’ve always thought campaigns are too long, too expensive and too inane in our country. Looking over most campaign literature for City Commission is like reading the nutritional information on a box of Cap’n Crunch. Lots of sugar, not much substance and a package that appeals to children.
Here are links to sites for the two incumbents:
Nan Whaley [1]
Joey D. Williams [2]
Spend some time on either site- and then some time here. You compare. Then tell your friends to do the same.
Thanks, and if you have some money you can spare, and you care about Dayton- there is a big contribute box on the right sidebar.
If you first started researching voting and finance history just now, when you annoucned months ago, and ran for office last year you are way behind the power curve. I’m a bit suprised to here what you are saying here.
My experience with the BOE was thay they were quite helpful when I went down there in person to ask for the campaign finance information (I was researching campaign contributions to the county commissioners races).
The BOE people brought out the folders for the elections I was interested in, gave me a room to work in, and offerred to make photocopys of the disclosure forms if I needed any. They don’t keep the financial disclosure information online the way the state does, so this research has to be done via hard copy.
For election results, these are kept online as .pdfs by jurisdiction and precinct, so you don’t even have to go downtown for that info. They also have precinct maps available via CD. I got a CD of the Washington Twp precincts when I was researching election results here.
So, my experience with tbe BOE was pretty good. And, I’m not sure why you say the BOE is partisan when they are not. They are governed by members of both partys.
Just visited your opponents’ sites. While undoubtably good people seeking the best for D-town, their sites say nothing. Whereas your site’s content could fill a book, theirs couldn’t fill even a comic book.
Yes, John, the opponents sites are weak. But sometimes you can say too much, or in this case say stuff that is not necessarily true.
While they may only fill a comic book, at least that comic book is not full of insults and radical opinions and half truths and inaccurate stories. Maybe the comic book is the way to get elected.
David has a lot of good information, but he also has a lot of other stuff that may be inappropriate for an elected official.