Should We “Throw All The Bums Out”?

As usual, last night’s Lower Shore AFP meeting was interesting.  Ed Urban of the Wicomico Tourism Board spoke about why the County Council did the right thing by spending $1.5 million of “free money” for a new parking lot at the civic center.  While I don’t thing many folks agreed, the discussion was civil.  Salisbury City Councilwoman Debbie Campbell came to explain how the current council majority AND the Ireton administration are illegally spending tax dollars WITHOUT appropriation.

For me, the most engaging moments came AFTER the meeting was over.  I listened to several good people make the argument that just because someone is an incumbent, they are somehow “tainted”.  This is a view that disturbs me greatly.  Experience is not a crime.  In fact, most societies have considered it a virtue.

When discussing a possible run for office by an incumbent in another office, the response by several people was that this gentlemen had already served in government and was now corrupted by “the good old boys”.  I asked if there was any evidence to that statement.  No, there wasn’t.  “But what has this person accomplished?”  I explained that this person was one of only two people in county government who had proposed tax relief during the last four years.  That didn’t seem to matter because this individual had not been able to garner the requisite number of votes to gather a veto-proof majority.

While everyone has a right to their opinion, I like a little logic in my debates.  Using this version of “logic”, we should throw Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen off of the Salisbury Council because they don’t vote with the majority.  Forget the fact that their vocal opposition has embarrassed the current majority out of wasting more hundreds of thousands of tax dollars than they already have.  Using this “logic” voters should fire such fiscal and constitutional stalwarts as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ).  While I whole heartedly agree that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) should be summarily thrown from the House leadership, there conservative voting records don’t merit their being thrown out of Congress by the voters of their respective districts.

As someone who has worked for several members of Congress and helped many members of state legislatures get elected I know more than most that incumbency can (and sadly often does) ruin many promising elected officials.  That is why I have long advocated cleaning house in the Republican party before we again argue that the GOP deserves to be handed the reigns of power again.  However, not all incumbents are tainted.  I wish that all were as forthright as DeMint and Coburn; but they’re not.  Many incumbents on the GOP side, such as Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), need to go.  Just abut every Democrat does.

Just because someone is an incumbent is not reason to throw a person to the wolves.  If we do, I guarantee that certain things will happen.  One, the GOP will have a pretty good year this year.  That will happen regardless.  However, what will happen in 2012 and beyond?  The same argument of “they haven’t accomplished ENOUGH” will be used against those same well meaning folk who rode an anti-incumbency wave into office.

While I’m a big supporter of reasonable term limits, I like a little experience in my elected officials.  No, not every one should be an incumbent.  Nobody should be able to make a career out of “public service”.  Yet, struggling to do the right thing in the minority – and failing – certainly isn’t reason to rid any government of its best and brightest officials.  Such a view is almost as dangerous as allowing a potentially great movement to be co-opted (and corrupted) by the GOP.  If certain well intentioned folk in the tea party movement don’t learn this lesson, a grand idea will die a fairly quick and painful death.

cross posted at Delmarva Dealings