I'm told one of the first big issues that we will be deciding is whether to put in place and ordinance that mandates a primary election whenever there are more than two candidates for a public office. This is, of course, as opposed to having the Council decide independently each time there are more than two candidates for office.
On the surface, at least, this appears to be a no-brainer.......and come to think of it, it IS A NO BRAINER!
Think about it for a minute. Under the present system, the mere act of deciding to hold or not hold a primary is manipulation of the election results. If the Council "likes" the incumbent Mayor, they naturally want to have as many challengers as possible to run against him to split the vote that wants a change in leadership. Conversely, they can choose to hold a primary if they don't like the incumbent and want to give the challenger(s) every reasonable opportunity to defeat the incumbent.
In a sense, the Council, or at least a majority of the Council, can hold the proverbial "Sword of Damocles" over the head of the Mayor not only during the duration of his/her term, but especially during election season
In addition, there is a distinct possibility that the successful Mayoral candidate could be elected (in a three-way race) with as little as 34% of the vote. That may be a very, very small number of actual votes. Do the math...
Say 4000 people vote (about 35% of the electorate)
Say there are three candidates and the it goes, 34% to 33% to 33%
So the winner (at 34%) got:
.34 X 4,000 =1360 votes....
that's 1360 votes out of an ELIGIBLE VOTER LIST OF 11,400
OR
11.9% OF THE ELIGIBLE VOTE!
50.1% of all eligible voters would be 5711 votes.
So what I propose is making the mayor get a Majority of the votes AND remove the sword of Damocles from the hand of the council as it pertains to the Mayor.
I am not "moved" by the argument that a primary election is "expensive" and that not holding a primary is a "cost savings" measure. This is the argument I've heard over and over again on the floor and consider it to be a subterfuge for another agenda.
I'm looking forward to the fight really.
could be a good one!
