Tammany Hall Hegemony?

Travis Armstrong's editorial today on "machine politcs" confuses me as it uses the same illogical reasoning as those that support term limits and fails to mention, yet again, the money and influence of groups like the Police Officer's Association. It's facinating to me how much power he gives SEIU when the POA spends a substantial amount of money itself.

He uses Terry Tyler as an example of a citizen candidate. His love affair with Terry Tyler's campaign forgets several things.

• Tyler didn't walk precincts and was absent in Europe for much of the beginning of the campaign -- this tells me he wasn't that serious about being a council member and had more important things to do.
  
• Tyler didn't raise much money. No matter what Armstrong says -- good candidates have little trouble raising money, whether they are liberal, moderate or conservative.
  
• His own support of Tyler was worth reporting on Tyler's campaign disclosure as it easily represented over $10,000 in advertising on any given day in the News-Press. Why didn't that have an effect?
  

Finally, the relationship to term limits is that in the final analysis voters vote for the candidates they prefer. I can't stand this argument that money is all there is as it presumes a level of stupidity on the part of voters -- like they can't make up their own minds. Saying that voting is a formality cheapens the process and does not add up. If you don't like Wolf or Williams -- vote for Secord!

In the last election, we saw a record turnout -- they couldn't have all been liberal. Democracy is great as it does have that check and balance. If we don't like who is the incumbent -- we can vote for someone else. That, my friends, is the beauty of the system -- no matter how much money is involved.