This spring I did something which I'd never imagined. I ran for public office.
It was a small local position, and I didn't win, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless, and really a surprise to me. This is the story of how it came about.
In the fall of 2000, my wife and I moved into a new house. It was out in the country, the first time either of us had lived outside a city. I'd wanted to meet some of the people in the area, but I was (and remain) shy, and didn't really have any good ideas where to start. Partly because of that, and partly to learn what was going on in my new home, I began going to some of the town board meetings.
A digression for those who aren't familiar with the township system common to much of the United States. The States are, in general, each divided into counties, which often provide many of the services of local government, administering the welfare system, maintaining much of the local transportation network, and with some law enforcement and judicial responsibilities. In some states, including Wisconsin, all of the land within the state is part of a county. Each city within the county has its local government; the rest of the county is divided into townships, smaller administrative areas, with limited governmental powers. Townships maintain the smaller roads, have some powers over land use, and sometimes maintain parks, fire departments, or other local services.
I live in the Town of St. Joseph, which is in Saint Croix County, Wisconsin. It's a fairly small township, but with a rapidly growing population. We're not far from the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, a mid-sized metropolitan area, and many people are settling here to raise their families and commute into work. There is also some limited commercial development, including a major golf course which opened recently just southwest of our house.
I expected the board meetings to be dry and boring. I was surprised to find that they were actually rather interesting. Yes, there were a lot of details discussed, and many of them really had very little direct impact on me, such as whether someone could place a house slightly closer to the road than the regulations would normally allow. Many of the issues were interesting, though, not so much because of the details but because in the context of the entire town they helped set the direction in which we were changing.
The meetings were long -- often starting at 7:00 and lasting until 11:00 at night or later. But much of what I found most interesting, such as discussions from the town engineer on road maintenance, was towards the end and I stayed for it. The board members began to recognize me and to know who I was.
Actually, I'd begun to have some connection with the board even before that. In the fall before we moved, they'd begun looking for volunteers to work on the town web site. My wife and I found out and volunteered, as we felt it was something we could do for the community. I started meeting with one of the board members and with some of the other town officials, and together we eventually developed a reasonably good site. (If you're interested, it can be found at http://www.isd.net/townofstjoseph/ ).
Between working on the web site and going to the board meetings, I began to feel that I had not only an interest in the workings of the town, but also a stake in it. A year later, I felt comfortable enough with the issues to stand up at the town budget meeting and speak in favor of borrowing funds for road work. (Major budget issues are decided at a meeting of town citizens, held once a year; typically about 100 persons attend ours, out of a total population of around 3,000.)
In January this year, I learned that one of the current board members would be retiring. An acquaintance called and suggested that I consider running for his position. It wasn't an easy decision. There was a time commitment involved -- even though I went to many of the board meetings, I didn't attend all of them, and being a board member would mean spending time outside of the meetings on town business as well. I'd also seen some of the meetings get quite emotional, with personal attacks made on the members. And I wasn't sure about the idea of discussing hard issues twice a month in front of an audience.
I thought about it for a long time. It seemed like a lot of work for very little personal return (the board members receive a small stipend, but very little compared to the hours involved). It wasn't something I'd choose for myself, not a career path or a way to have an experience that I wanted. But eventually I agreed to run.
Why? Because I felt I could contribute something to the community. I'm smart, I'm patient, reasonably good with money, and fairly good at analysing the connections between issues. I'm also able to make decisions for the good of someone else, while putting my own feelings and desires in the background. It felt like a duty to agree to offer my abilities, however small they may be, to the citizens. So I did.
In mid-January there was a town caucus. There were four candidates for the position, and the citizens at the caucus voted on all of us. Two of us went on to a run-off; rather to my surprise (since I had moved into the town fairly recently and knew relatively few people), I was one of the two candidates to move on to the election.
I met with a citizens group to discuss issues facing the town; spoke at a candidates' forum (primarily answering audience questions); and wrote some short answers to questions from a local newspaper. I didn't do much other campaigning, though I probably should have. I had a few flyers printed up, and walked around one of the local communities handing them out and talking with people. It was rather stressful; I really don't enjoy meeting strangers. I'd gone out on a weekend, though, and there weren't many people at home; I left more flyers in doors than I handed to people. Still, at least more people knew who I was by the end.
The election was this past April; as I already mentioned, I didn't win, getting roughly 20% of the vote. In some ways I'm relieved, especially as my wife's now pregnant and I'll be able to spend more time with our child. At the same time, I haven't ruled out running again, for many of the same reasons I eventually decided to run this time. I've heard that there will be another opening on the board next year!
Copyright © 2002 Anton Rang.