Posted: 11/29/06
Final Draft - by Cliff Buchan
There are reasons for voter apathy
We sometimes complain about voter apathy and wonder why more of us donít take the time to get involved in the election process. If the vote total reaches 50 percent of the number of registered voters, we cheer.
More and more, however, it becomes easier to understand why a good number of voting-eligible adults donít bother with the work needed to learn about candidates and the issues, and taking the time to vote.
Want evidence about why people are turned off by the process? By mid-September, most people were sick to death of the avalanche of negative television ads that bombarded our homes day after day.
There were some exceptions, but by and large candidates have learned that attack ads work and they use them, over and over.
And political affiliation has no protection. They all use them.
The sad note is how dirty politics have also spilled over to local races in the Forest Lake. We have two cases here that are stuff for nightmares and almost too unbelievable to be true.
The dirty tricks have hammered the Forest Lakeís mayoral race and the District 4 Chisago County Board race in the Wyoming area. Both incidents are despicable.
In the Forest Lake case, Mayor-elect Stev Stegner was the target of a dirty tricks smear that crossed the line of a hate crime. Without repeating the nasty details, we can say Stegner was accused of fathering an illegitimate child and was a Muslim in hiding who wasnít good for Forest Lake.
None of it is true, of course, and those who participated in any part of the smear should hang their heads in shame or see someone for help. The personal damage the attack has done to the Stegner family can never be measured.
The damage to Forest Lakeís image from a metro newspaper account of the incident is also immense. What an image Forest Lake must now have over a bogus and hateful incident.
The only vindication for Stegner is that he prevailed and won the mayoral race.
In Wyoming it was an attack of a different kind but one as hurtful and riddled with false information and out and out lies.
That pre-Nov. 6 attack was attempt to defeat incumbent County Commissioner Ben Montzkaís reelection bid. The attack, delivered in form of first class U.S. mail by a ějusticeî group with no real identification, also trashed State Senate candidate Rick Olseen who served on the board with Montzka and former Commissioner Lora Walker who lost her seat two years ago.
Itís hard to say which of the attacks was the worst, but the Stegner and Montzka incidents are two of the worst examples of local politics ever to surface here.
Fortunately, residents of the Wyoming area saw through the lies. Montzka claimed nearly 70 percent of the vote to win his seat and Olseen upset an incumbent Republican to win the District 17 senate seat.
Still, the Wyoming attack, was sickening.
When members of Montzkaís church are singled out for the mailer it goes too far. When potential clients of Montzkaís law practice are singled out for the mailer, it goes too far.
What steps the wronged can take are unclear. Montzka may yet be able to track down the culprits responsible for the mailer and take action via campaign practice violations. Stegner may turn to the human rights commission in Forest Lake for an investigation.
While the wrong parties are the ones who pay the human price, there is also a price paid by our communities. It is such actions that makes one wonder about how some of our citizens think and what they will do.
But after seeing the examples of national and statewide elections, it is easy to see that the lessons have spun down to the local level.
And we wonder why there is voter apathy?
Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605