Congratulations to Mike Fleck
484 866 7437 (cell) or mpfleck1313@aol.com
484 866 7437 (cell) or mpfleck1313@aol.com
Posted by: Noel Jones
Good morning, everyone--although the smoke has not cleared yet on the final vote count for our neighborhood City Council race, due to a malfunctioning machine at the St. Anthony's polling station, the counts at other polling stations show Mike Fleck to be the clear winner over write-in challenger, Dennis Lieb. There was also a terrifically high percentage of "undervotes" at each poll, which may or may not be because people tried to vote for Dennis but were confused about the process, hitting the "cast vote" button without hitting the "enter" button first, but there is no way of proving that, so it is what it is.
In other news, Sandra Vulcano and Roger Ruggles are still on City Council, and now Mike Fleck is back on Council, so it's all familiar faces. But not full of familiar faces is our new County Council, which was swept by all Republicans. I swear, Easton is the most politically imbalanced place I have ever lived in terms of Democrats and Republicans. In a healthy community, you have a balance of both, so that creative vision gets balanced with fiscal responsibility in open debate as each issue comes up for discussion. Here, we have
a Democratic mayor and City Council that is all Democrats, except for one Republican (Ruggles) who almost always votes with the Democrats. Now, on our County Council, while I'm delighted to be rid of Dertinger, who, like Angle, has a histrionic tendency to make most meetings into a petty personal shouting circus, we now have a County Council that is overwhelmingly Republican. I would try to use manic-depressive mood swings as a metaphor here for these political trends, except that I honestly don't know which side I would label the manic, or the depressive.
Morning Call Article by Michael Duck on City Council Election Results
In the judges race, Koury, Zito and Dally won.
The real story in Easton, however, remains the low voter turn-out in local elections. I sympathize wholeheartedly with Peter Koehler, who lost against Roger Ruggles for the College Hill City Council seat, when he says in Michael Duck's article that he was hoping to help ''change the political atmosphere of Easton,'' but ''perhaps the town's still not quite ready for change.'' Until more residents are ready for change, and until we can convince residents that their local elections affect their lives more than the national election, we will not see change in our City Council. In the election for President, 69% percent of registered voters voted. In Democratic primary for City Council, 6.8% voted. In the general, it's hard to know because so many "undervotes" were cast that could have been for Dennis Lieb (for instance, at St. Anthony's for Ward 7, the count was Fleck 55, Lieb 11, undervotes 33), but it was, in general a similar low turnout of voters, trickling in throughout the day. I did not once, at any station yesterday, see a line outside, while outside the polling station on the morning of the last presidential election, the line was 60 people long when I voted.
Still, it was an exciting day as it was inspiring to see how many people came out excited to vote for a write-in candidate, whether or not they did it properly. At one poll, Dennis Lieb got one vote for Supreme Court Justice, and five votes for County Council, instead of City Council.
What matters most is the kernel of political will that is developing slowly in the West Ward--I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Dennis had run as an Independent candidate, rather than a write-in, and therefore had his name on the ballot, rather than requiring the confusing write-in process--maybe the race would have been a lot closer. We will never know, but these are all lessons learned along the road to change.
In the meantime, congratulations to Mike Fleck, our representative on City Council. Let's put him to work:
Mike Fleck
(484) 866 7437
mpfleck1313@aol.com
Contact Mike with any concerns you have about the neighborhood, or legislation you would like to see introduced on City Council.
For those West Ward residents living in the College Hill/Downtown voting district, your rep on City Council is now:
Roger Ruggles
(610) 250-6731
rruggles@easton-pa.gov
I hope to see you all at City Council meetings where we can talk to our neighborhood reps face to face!
Yours,
Noel Jones
Neighbors of Easton
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14 comments:
Heard the news here in Haiti this morning. We need to keep Mike Fleck focused on the West Ward. He will stray if we don't keep him honest. I believe he will work with us and look forward to keeping him honest.
It is hot hot hot in Haiti and the flying cockroaches are something to see. All is well here in the orphanage I am working in and I hope to write about it soon.
Good job Dennis and thanks for your effort.
Good to hear from you, Tim! If you get a chance, I would love to read a post about the orphanage, as a continuation of the compare/contrast post you wrote before about poor neighborhoods in Easton vs. Haiti.
And yes, it's up to us to keep our rep focused on the job of representing us--attending City Council meetings will be an important part of that.
I was almost an "undervote" - had to ask the poll worker to come in and help me figure out why the boxes wouldn't light up and it was because I didnt hit enter after writing in the name. Overheard other persons, older than myself, requesting help and hearing poll worker explain how to choose the individual candidate or how to vote straight for the party ticket. No option was pointed out for the write in and one voter freshly out of the booth said "oh just vote straight democratic its easier." This is how Mike Fleck got votes - he rode the ticket. One write in candidate in Wilson (?) won - he had an issue - a landfill. To mobilize the political will in West Ward there needs to be a long term strategy that starts NOW.
does anyone have a link to a page which shows how the districts are split up? I'm in the northeast corner of the WW, not sure if Ruggles or Fleck is my guy. anybody have a clue?
Tim...
Thanks for the vocal support. See you when you get back.
Anon@6:49pm...
You are right on target with your assessment of the voting process on these computers. The numbers obviously show I wouldn't have won - I'll address my reasons for running in my own post soon - but the lax attitude by poll workers who don't point out that write-ins are an option (especially when they know someone is running a write-in campaign for an important local seat) is presumptious and neglectful of the public's needs.
Also concerning people asking for help; there are multiple ballot questions hiding on the right side of the screen. People - especially older voters, not use to looking at these screens - can completely miss them. Are the poll workers pointing out to voters that these need to be voted on too? I admit that I completely missed them until I got outside and saw them on the paper ballot...sheesh!
EHB...
Your candidate would be on the ballot for the district you vote in. I would have to assume you didn't vote or you would have seen the names...gotta get in the game if you want to win.
In any event, if you live on the northern side of Northampton Street your representative would be Fleck (if you live on the west side of N. 10th Street or above) or Ruggles (if you live on the east side of N. 10th Street or below). I agree this is a convoluted situation and it needs to be addressed before the next election...a ballot question would be in order here.
DRL
Ha... I don't think you can compare the parochial nature of Easton politics as it exists now to anything, anywhere. But, I think Bill White's column on Northampton County this morning sheds some interesting and light-hearted light on the county council picture: http://bit.ly/3qgvZJ
I have to tip my hat to LEIB for staging his eleventh hour campaign. Though I'm disappointed I am also encouraged to see more and more folks getting involved in the local process. Six people I know who have never voted before pulled the lever for LIEB on Tuesday.
A number of folks I spoke to at the polls, predominately Democrats, openly expressed their disappointment of city council and committed not to making the same mistake next election.
A number of young people I am engaged with will be turning voting age in the near future and will be exercising their right.
Political will is slowly growing in the West Ward and I applaud LIEB for contributing to that capacity, but more so for simply being an outstanding neighbor.
I also thought it was very cool that two people working the polls for Dennis had never been involved in the political process before--they had voted, but never engaged in trying to get someone elected. So to be inspired to do so for our first race for rep on council is really cool, and a sign that the neighborhood is beginning to wake-up politically in general.
thanks Dennis, I guess I'm in Ruggles territory (I'm on N7th).
no, I don't vote or get involved in the poitical process though I do pay attention to it. due to my personal beliefs I am politically neutral (which is a distinction from being politically apathetic).
I think there is a lot people can do to improve their neighborhoods without getting involved in politics. cleaning up the street in front of one's own home, paying attention to who your neighbors are, and being good neighbors in return, and setting an example of behavior all go a long way towards improving things.
perhaps the city has ignored the WW because of what it has become: a bedroom community for renter refugees from NY and NJ.
I respect what you are trying to do and know you can probably effect change more effectively out of office than in.
Keith
EHB,
these responsible actions of a conscientious resident (cleaning up in front of one's property, getting to know neighbors, etc.) are very important parts of the bigger picture of what needs to happen, and i'm really glad that you're committed to that, but political involvement of citizens is also a crucial part as it is what makes us American. our country was constructed politically to give every citizen a voice in the process, and when we don't exercise that right, that's when we can be walked over (or simply overlooked) by our politicians and governing bodies, because if they can keep getting re-elected without doing anything for the neighborhood, they have no incentive at all to pay attention to what the neighborhood has to say. if residents start voting off the people that ignore them, the new people that get elected get the message that the neighborhood cannot be ignored.
There are other ways of participating, however, like attending City Council meetings and speaking up on issues that affect the neighborhood. Or encouraging good candidates to run for office, and helping them get elected. Writing letters to the editors of newspapers is great way to get involved. But the most important way of participating as an American is voting. And it is one of the great things about first-world countries like the U.S. that we often take for granted because the ability has always been there for us. There are people in Iran and Afghanistan right now, literally dying for the right to have a say in who governs them. If we had that much political will in the WW, we would be the strongest political voice in the City, and everyone in our local government would have no choice but to take our concerns seriously, incorporate our ideas into policy and act on them.
Noel, I appreciate your enthusiasm for the political process, but I'm not an idealist; I'm a realist. if government is not outright corrupt, it is beholden to special interest groups and those that put them in office. at the local level, Easton has this strange penchant for putting people back in office who have failed there before. but SOMEBODY must have thought it was a good idea. then, when their choice is in office, the other side works their hardest to get their choice back in there; it's a never ending, tail chasing cycle.
the idealists put Obama in office, and in just this first year, its clear that he cannot achieve what he set out to do, and his opposers are working ever harder to get him out of there. In my view, this is a seriously flawed system that I'd rather not have a part of.
this is the point where someone will usually say something about 'greatest country in the world' or 'freedom'. well, no government so far has been able to alleviate the things that truly matter: poverty, hunger, homelessness, crime.
yes, we have it better here than some places (like Haiti and hundreds of other places) but every place has its problems and issues and there is no way people can solve them.
EHB,
I couldn't agree with you more as to the disappointments in our current process, corruption, croneyism (croneyism, which is really like "corruption-lite"). That is why it is so important to win all elections by a large margin, and why a large movement among the people is important to make that happen.
We have been seduced through advertising from crib to grave into a lifestyle of consumerism and pursuit of fantasy. We prefer escapism to getting involved in the hard work of change--and who wouldn't? I would much rather be curled up watching a great movie with David, then attending a City Council meeting. But while most are escaping, a few are focusing on how to attain power. I participate in my democracy because I know that if I don't take part in trying to change things, then I have no right to expect anything to change.
We will always have to compensate for corruption with sheer numbers--as in the Presidential election--but to do that we need political will to grow--strength in numbers.
And while there is a certain amount of corruption in the American political system to contend with, issues with voting machines and such (which is an issue that we as a nation should be fighting), at least we don't have people threatening to shoot us, or stuffing ballot boxes on the scale of 30-50% as some countries do. All we need is a big margin, and we can win anything we want.
It doesn't take much to fill City Hall. I think it only seats about 70 people max. And believe me, anything even 20 people have to say gets into the papers, and gets the attention of elected officials who want to be elected again.
I respect your feelings, I'm just hoping you'll change your mind one day... ; )
What part of City government in Easton is corrupt and isn't the city better off that it was just a few years ago? I agree with much this blog has to say but let's not condemn everyone in Easton government beacuse Fleck won. This is the same guy that called Panto recycled and is now back on council himself and frankly if he does half as good as Panto Fleck's second tiume around I will be hapy. Unfortuately I think Fleck is first a politician and Panto is first a statesman. I don't always agree with Panto but he is doing a great job......and our alternative would have been Fleck. OMG I don't even want to think about where we would be if Fleck was Mayor. Sal, keep up the good work and please control Fleck at the meetings.
Anon@2:11am...
"Corruption" comes in many forms. It isn't just taking money for favors. It can be the personal expectation (often unspoken) of future rewards. It can be simple laziness: not getting things done right and on time. It can be enforcing ordinances equally, regardless of who someone knows or the relative ease or difficulty of getting one person (scumbag landlord) to perform vs another person (upstanding property owner). It can be stagnation within departments that doesn't allow new ideas or proceedures to take form because "that would make our jobs harder" or "we don't want anyone watching what we do".
These other forms can be better described as corrosion than corruption...there consequences are the same.
As someone who works closely with government I've seen examples of all the above. It can be difficult and uncomfortable to breach the subjects. But someone has to.
Kieth,
For now, your non-voting, "political policy" seems set in stone. I won't try to change it...only some event in your own life will make that happen. For now I am happy to know that there is at least one more person out there practicing a "good neighbor" policy.
I'm often amazed at how certain people react to the simple expectation that they are some how responsible for the physical appearance of their own streets and blocks.
At some point, the simple acts of citizenship involving responsibility for one's own property, street and neighborhood have gone the way of the pole-mounted fire alarm. It could be a blog topic all in itself. I'll try to tackle that at some point.
DRL
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