I’m convinced there’s no politics more brutal than local politics. People might say crueler things about Trump or Biden than they’d say about a Hernando County Commissioner. But that’s because we treat National Politicians more like movie characters than people. We aren’t going to run into our next POTUS at Publix, so we forget they’re real humans and not Darth Vader.

And here’s the deal – National Politicians probably don’t think of you as real humans either. Consequently, their feelings aren’t so hurt by the mean things you say. They’d probably dismiss your jibes as ill-informed or ignorant. They have a gaggle of people surrounding them whose job it is to make sure no criticism is ever taken to heart.

But local politics is different. When we rant about a School Board candidate online, that same day we might run into them at the baseball field and the grocery store and the restaurant and later at church. Our kid might want to invite their kid over to play. Nothing makes sitting by the poolside with someone more uncomfortable than knowing THEY KNOW you just published a meme of them as Stalin.

When I ran for County Commission, there were an irrational number of slanderous stories circulating about me. Al Capone’s list of crimes was short in comparison. I was dropping off a sign at my friend Korie’s house and she brought up one of the charges and said, “Your campaign has really got me thinking. Until now, when someone said something about a politician, I assumed it was true. But I know you and I know these stories are garbage. Now I feel bad about automatically believing stories about the others.”

That’s rule #1. NOT EVERYTHING YOU HEAR ABOUT A POLITICIAN IS TRUE. I know just about all our local politicians. They are all people with interesting backgrounds. Some are a true gift to our generation. Some are generous and kind. Some of them aren’t very good at making policy. Some aren’t good listeners. And some frankly are just in it for personal power. But they are flesh and blood humans with spouses, kids, or moms who read what’s said about them. Talk to a politician’s family member. Most of them hate politics. Because there are people who will make terrible things up about a politician in order to benefit their opponent. So take what you hear with a grain of salt.

Voting for a politician shouldn’t be done the same way you voted for prom court. LONG before I was Brooksville’s Mayor, I was Cambridge Springs High School’s Prom Queen. It didn’t require qualifications or a campaign platform. They just liked me so they gave me a fancy jeweled crown. That’s not the right way to elect politicians. Someone might be really nice but not any good at leading.

That’s rule #2. ELECTIONS SHOULD BE ABOUT POLICY. Modern day local elections are almost always determined by postcards:

• the number of postcards you send
• whether you send the same postcard repeatedly or have multiple versions
• how glossy and heavy the postcard is
• how happy your family looks in their obligatory photo

These postcards (aka infinitely nebulous heralders of Democracy) will start coming in the mail any day now. Here’s a secret – they don’t SAY anything. The postcard will tell you the politician believes people should have jobs and pay less taxes. They will tell you the politician loves America and hates people who kick dogs.

You will know no more about the politician after you read the postcard than before you read it. But these postcards are the single most important factor in who gets elected. I don’t blame politicians for that – they’re doing what works – I blame us as voters. We should demand more than a politician spending $100,000 on vacuous postcards. But historically we haven’t. We could change that by demanding actual answers to policy questions and by showing up en masse to community forums. But historically we haven’t. We haven’t asked hard questions and kept asking them until we got an actual answer.

See, remembering politicians are human doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever say things that will annoy them or hurt their feelings. Democracy means everyone’s voice should be heard and disagreements publicly hashed out. Being a politician means you will be annoyed, misunderstood, and disagreed with (just ask our Founding Fathers). If a politician can’t handle being disagreed with, he should move somewhere that wants a dictator.

That’s rule #3. DON’T LET ANYONE SILENCE YOUR VOICE. Right after I was elected Mayor, I attended a Florida League of Cities workshop led by a twenty-year Mayor teaching us how to run Council meetings. She said there was no reason for meetings to be more than 15 minutes long. She said her Council voted 5-0 on everything and citizen input never lasted more than 5 minutes total. I was a very new Mayor, but her advice felt off. I wondered:

• Why do you need a Council of five people if they all agree about everything?
• And do they all agree, or is one person just making the decisions for all of them?
• And is that one person making decisions for them all because they are a bully? Or because the others aren’t doing the work to be an informed decision-maker?

Those are hard questions and in a small community, they can be uncomfortable ones to ask. Our 2024 City Council seems to be routinely experiencing this uniformity of thought. Why? Is it because they share one age demographic? Is it because they are in the same friend/family circle? Is it because individuals don’t feel comfortable expressing dissent?

These are questions 2024 voters must take responsibility to decide.

• What does diversity of thought, income, experience, family connection, historical context look like? Is it important to have?
• Is it problematic to have four Council members in the same friend/family circle? Does vacationing together and having the same social circle create difficulties for the spirit of public record laws?
• Does Board composition impact the formulation and focus of local policy?
• What expectations do we have for experience and conduct of our politicians?

The one City Council member outside the friend/family circle now has an opponent who is a cousin of two other Council members. I personally like them all and am friends with their moms. But we are not being responsible voters if we don’t think through possible repercussions of having three family members in an elected body with five seats. It’s not fair to them or to our community to not have that discussion.

In Hernando County’s history, having multiple family members simultaneously in elected offices has led to politicians overlooking each other’s ethical violations. Neighbors and friends also remained silent because they didn’t want to be ostracized or made uncomfortable at church potlucks. The public eventually got fed up and ousted them all. It’s happened at least twice. The most recent time the county flipped from Democrat to Republican and has never gone back.

Just because a family power dynamic was an issue in the past doesn’t mean it would be today. Not all families are the same or think uniformly. I have nine siblings and I doubt we’d vote unanimously on anything. But voters must go in with eyes wide open and be prepared to hold their politicians accountable. Because unchecked problems hurt the community, the individual politician, and the party they represent. No one wins. Integrity has to be the standard for those we like and those we don’t. Otherwise, it’s not Integrity. It’s just another weapon to use on our enemies.

By the way, the twenty-year Mayor from the city conference I attended was voted out the next election. Turns out her community also thought more than one voice was needed in local government. It doesn’t matter if the solo voice is a bullying dictator or a velvet glove. Both are bad for Democracy. A politician who can’t be questioned without fear of vengeful retribution is not someone who should be trusted with elected office. Whatever a dictator’s motives are, it never ends well for the community.

So use your unique voice to say what needs to be said, even if it’s uncomfortable for you or the politician you are engaging with.

My friend and fellow former Mayor Frankie Burnett used to remind us on Council, “We can disagree without being disagreeable.” He meant it. He believed myself and some other Council members had violated the Sunshine Law and reported us (we were ultimately cleared). Frankie did that because Integrity was his standard. I understood that and we stayed friends. This photo of Frankie and me was after that incident. He was attending my County Commission race announcement and making a public statement It supporting my candidacy.

Frankie exemplified what it means to disagree without being disagreeable. It’s a really delicate balance. Some people say things that need to be said but don’t worry about their tone. I wish they would.

That’s rule #4. SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID, BUT SAY IT GRACIOUSLY. Your ‘opponents’ are your neighbors, friends and family. They probably aren’t as evil as you project on them. They might just be really bad at their job and need a new one. Or they might need educating on an issue you happen to know more about. If you speak graciously, they might even listen.

At the same time, the politician you support isn’t infallible and isn’t really helped when you pretend they are. Politicians don’t need pedestals. The job lends itself to narcissism – don’t encourage it with false applause.

Politicians are people. Whatever their motivation, they’ve taken the hard step of putting themselves out for the public to have opinions about. This election season, may we formulate educated opinions and ignore the pointless mailers. May we join one of the local forums that keeps issues before the public and attend candidate forums. May we require real answers to our questions. May we speak to/about our politicians the way we would want to be spoken to and may we all live better as a result.