Change to the Qualifying Period for Candidates

Recently the City Commission voted 4 to 1 to change the qualifying period to run for office in Lake Worth. Commissioner McVoy was the lone dissenting vote. The qualifying period is 14 days. That is how you go about getting your name on the ballot and become an official candidate. You work with the City Clerk (Pam Lopez) and she guides you through the process. Some, Mrs. McGiveron for one, will have you believe the City Clerk is a person to be feared. This is not the case.

The next election day is Tuesday, March 10, 2015; District Two Commissioner McVoy and District Four Commissioner John Szerdi are up for re-election if they choose to run again.

With the change to the election rules, a person can qualify starting 11/25/14 through 12/9/14. If someone chose to qualify to run for office on 11/25/14, they would have 105 days to actively and openly campaign until election day, on March 10, 2015. The Lake Worth commission voted to extend the campaign time frame by 63 days (105 days [new rules] versus 42 days [old rules]), if someone chose to qualify on the first qualifying day, this coming November 25.

Commissioner McVoy, as previously noted, voted against the change. Using his twisted logic he sees this as disadvantage for someone considering a run for elected office. Commissioner McVoy is a Cornell University graduate and it's possible he learned something at Cornell that is a mystery to the rest of us, The Great Unwashed.

Could it be 42 days is just a short enough period of time to hide behind smoke and obfuscation? Doesn't a longer campaign period add in the local democratic process in terms of providing more information for voters regarding candidates, where they stand on issues and how they are going to lead the city forward? Isn't more time better than less time? Of course, you could declare your candidacy whenever you want, but the most recent system allowed for people to wait in the shadows, essentially until the last minute, and then attempt to mount a campaign. By this time, campaigning and the legendary telling-of-stories could go on with abandon and it would be hard to get the cows back in the gate. I am all for the new change.

Oh, on an entirely unrelated note, I hear tell that the other blogger's content has taken a decidedly different tone of late. And also interesting Cara Jennings is showing up at the most unlikely of places about town. Hmmmmm.