We didn’t have anything to vote about
here in Carlsbad this round.
But 2010 will be different.
I could easily run for city council in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and win.
Last time we had a city council election, my ward had no formal candidate. One guy was a write in and he won with 90 votes or so. If I’d ran, and gotten my name on the ballot, I likely would have won because of name recognition, etc.
I thought about that for a long time after it went down. I had no idea that the level of involvement here was so slight.
I live in the north end of the barrio. My neighborhood is a mixed bag, racially. I’m not close to any of the people here, but they don’t give me any trouble, either. We’re all pretty good about keeping out of each other’s hair on my street.
There are maybe 25,000 people in Carlsbad.
The guy who has been mayor for many years finally has run into the term limit wall.
I know I should get off my lazy cowardly butt and get in these people’s faces and run for City Council.
But they scare the shit out of me. They are so indirect and weird and different and entrenched.
I think a lot of stuff is up for grabs in 2010. Not sure. They don’t like to advertise that sort of thing around here.
But I also know that I could become a member of the City Council of Carlsbad, NM, as a representative of my ward, if I put some energy into it.
There are people here would would ruin my life if it suited them, just to keep me out of the way.
But they could do it anyway, I guess.
Should I run for City Council next time the opportunity arises? I could easily win this, and if I won it, I know myself well enough to be very clear that I would get really ornery if I got some cats in my face about how I should just get along with the program.
Please give me advice. All of you. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. They don’t pay city council members here more than a pittance. That doesn’t matter, it would not be about money for me. If I am to try to do this, how do I start?
Thank you.
Miep
5 comments
Skip to comment form
We’ll help you along the way. Just promise yourself to think about it for a day before ever responding in anger, and everything will be fine, and interesting, and fun, and maybe even important.
this may not be sound advice, but it’s what I’d do if I was you, I would run as a Green for city council. If you’re going to be the only candidate on the ballot, you might as well. What’s the point of another Democratic councilwoman? There are thousands of those. There are only a few dozen Green councilwomen at most. Maybe you’re not a Green Party gal, though. Whatever floats your boat!
Either way (or if you run as an independent or socialist or progressive or whatever you decide to put on the ballot), you should look into it over the next few months. Go to city council meetings, get involved with stuff around the town, do things like that just to see if you’d be interested in running or actually being on the council. See if it’s something you’d want to do – but pay attention to when you need to hand in petitions to get on the ballot, or you could miss the deadline.
You’re in an enviable position. Don’t waste it!