Do you know your local elected officials?

Quiet Street in Holladay, Utah (Photo credit: Ken Lund)

Lately, I’ve been involved with a campaign that could be classified as “down ticket.” It’s not a for the US Senate or for Congress, Governor or the state legislature. It’s not even for attorney general. It’s the Salt Lake County mayor’s race, and it’s “down” the “ticket” from all of those higher profile races, even if it deals with issues near and dear to all of us.

Indeed, it may deal with stuff that we use a lot more often than some of those other offices in higher profile races. For example: libraries, rec centers, parks, snow plows, mental services, and even jails.

All of that, and more, falls under the responsibility of the Salt Lake County government. In a county that has shifted over the last few decades from rural to urban and from orchards (my neck of the woods) and horse property to wall-to-wall cities, county government has seen a lot of changes as cities have grown and expanded, bring government closer to the people.

Interestingly, though, I find few that understand or know what the county does. A few weeks back, Utah held caucus meetings to select delegates to attend county and state conventions. As we left, having just selected state and county delegates, I realized that we had spent the majority of the time discussing and debating federal issues related to the senate campaign. Some mention was made of the gubernatorial race, but only in passing. By the time we had gotten around to selecting county delegates–the ones who would select the Republican nominee  for county mayor–we were near to the end of the second hour and folks wanted to leave. Selected to be a county delegate myself, I shook hands with a neighbor who had also been selected and asked him his thoughts. His reply was revealing.

“I don’t really know what the county does,” he said. “I don’t have any idea.”

It turns out that his experience was not unique. As I have spoken with a number of delegates, very few know much about how the county works or what it does.

Do you?

As I thought about it, I realized that but for my involvement in the mayoral race, I’m not sure I would know much either. How about my city? I live in Holladay, but I couldn’t name a single member of the city council or the mayor if I was pressed.

Could there be something to this disconnect? Ask me about any number of congressmen, senators, agency heads, or even generals of the Army, and I feel like I’d be comfortable talking about them, even those with no connection to Utah. But bring up the local school board, principal of the high school (I just found out last week that he lives around the corner from me), or city council, and I’d be almost clueless.

Is it any wonder that we are so willing to turn to Washington, D.C. for solutions to problems instead of looking here in our own backyard? Is it any wonder we turn to the federal government for a solution for healthcare rather than just looking to our state governments?

I don’t know if there’s a connection, but I can’t help but wonder.

Connection or not, I’ll tell you one thing: tomorrow I’m going to look up my city council and mayor and try to learn a little about them.

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