PEA RIDGE — The citizens of Pea Ridge will have no excuse for casting an ‘uninformed vote’ in next month’s election of a city mayor. The Times and editor Annette Beard have done an outstanding job of providing detailed information on the four candidates and the issue of the mayor’s salary should draw every voter’s attention to the election. Not all newspapers are as well managed as The Times and few editors are willing to give the attention to a city election that Annette Beard has devoted to this race. The questions asked of each candidate may not specifically cover all of your area of interest, but the article should make you aware of the need to follow up with the specific candidate, or candidates if you need more information. Dorothy and I don’t live in the city limits so we can’t vote in the election, but the newspaper’s efforts to introduce the candidates and their views deserves some kind of award for journalistic fairness.

The question about salaries points up an interesting issue about elected officials’ pay. Should the county judge earn less in his or her first year with gradual increases for longevity or is a set figure more likely to bring more qualified candidates into the race? If no one opposed the current mayor would the City Council have felt a need to reduce the “starting salary”?

How would the council have dealt with this situation if one of the candidates challenging the incumbent had previous experience in governmental leadership such as a county judge, but the other two had no experience in the field? It is obvious that an incumbent has knowledge of a position that the average person on the street does not have. That is evident in the mayoral candidates’ answers to questions that were reported in the newspaper. The importance of experience in the position will be answered by the voters. The question of how much the position of mayor should be paid should depend on voters’ expectations of the office and a job description not on the whims of the City Council. Can’t you just see a ballot such as this? Vote for one: Incumbent Crabtree at $40,000; Hart at salary to be determined; McNeil at $26,500; Webb at $26,500.

Only joking, of course.

And, since I enjoy observing political game playing, it was interesting to read that a New York gubernatorial candidate named Carl Paladino won the Republican Primary. That in itself is not all that remarkable, nor is the fact that he was the TEA Party candidate so much of a surprise since they endorse the candidate regardless of political party. The surprise ishe also “won” the nomination of the Conservative Party. It was not reported whether he would appear on the ballot under both labels or only as a GOP choice.

Our own senatorial election continues to interest the national news media because the polls show the Republican challenger ahead of the incumbent Democrat and it seems that the word of the day is “change.” The outcome of polls too frequently are a function of the desires for a specific result by the person (or persons) paying the bill.

And, their phrase “margin of error” is always the handy excuse for explaining away a radical shift in voter sentiment when things don’t go along with the polls.

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette recently ran a political section on the candidates and their opinions on several areas of interest (to the press) which was perhaps helpful to us as voters. Unlike our mayor’s race however, if an answer is incomplete from a senatorial candidate you can’t sit down with them over coffee, so the depth of the answers from the professional politicians only proved to me what I already knew. The party will dictate how they will handle a particular vote if they are going to bring home “pork barrel” dollars.

It is going to be interesting to see how many states actually see changes in their congressional representation.

Because the two major political parties have dominated the Washington scene for too long, any significant change may take years and it may require the TEA Party to become something more than an endorser of a Democrat or Republican choice. To run a candidate in either party’s primary and win is no doubt progress - but the winner is still tied to a major party by political affiliation and only time will tell if they can vote their own conscience or give in to the major party’s influence.

Washington’s attitude continues to indicate that electing an individual who runs as an Independent is the only practical way to bring about change. They campaign differently because they don’t have the big money provided by the Democrats or the Republicans. Their stand on issues is generally more direct since they seldom have political professionals running their campaigns. And, more importantly they seem to express their views with a sincerity that prompts me to believe in them. I believe I am at the point in my political life where the two major parties no longer represent my personal values and only an Independent candidate merits my support.

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Editor’s note: Leo Lynch, a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at [email protected].

TIMES.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 10/06/2010