It would appear from early estimates that we have at least six Sedona residents who have put their names in to fill the open seat vacated by Sedona City Councilman Bill Chisholm, who resigned his seat two years early and moved to Colorado last month.
We are excited by both the number and the diversity of the proposed candidates and applaud them all them for filling out an application, submitting it and throwing their hat into the ring to fill this vital seat in our city’s leadership.
That said, unfortunately, only one of these individuals will be selected to fill that seat and only for the next year-and-a-half.
Ergo, we highly encourage the other candidates who are not selected to replace Chisholm to run for office in 2022.
Given that it’s currently the start of 2021, the timing gives any candidate more than a year to build a network of supporters, collect small donations for advertising materials, campaign signs and whatnot and begin speaking about their ideas to local civic groups so that when their name appears on the ballot, voters know who they are and for what they stand.
It’s also easier to get the votes of hundreds of neighbors in a wide field with several open seats using good ideas than it is to try and sway six elected officials to try and get one seat.
In City Council elections, it’s the smart and dynamic candidates who tend to win because they present innovative or clear ideas to voters in a way they can understand and appreciate — those who come to forums or open houses ready to listen to voters and hear what they have to say. The candidates who get elected and remain popular enough to get re-elected again are those who aren’t steadfast and rigid fundamentalists in their dogma, but are willing to change when new information is presented.
They are also people who trust the expertise of Sedona city staff but are willing to go another route rather than rubberstamp proposals of city management, especially on major projects that affect hundreds, thousands or all Sedona residents.
The best officials are also the ones willing to risk angering pockets of neighbors here or there because the decision they make benefits the city as a whole. We should respect the officials who make that hard vote that they know will lose them re-election because it was the right choice.
All too often, officials are swayed by the loudest voices in the room, or are convinced that the people who show up to council meetings just to scream — all collectively wearing red or yellow or white to show solidarity — represent the whole community, when in fact, they are just a special interest group. Often the vast majority of the public views a project the other way, just not so passionately that they base their fashion choices on a political decision.
Costumed livery shouldn’t set public policy. And officials shouldn’t be swayed by it.
Unlike national or state elections, local elections can be done on the cheap and candidates have won by only raising a few thousand dollars, not the tens of thousands required to reach the statehouse or even the county complexes in Prescott and Flagstaff. Most of that can be raised while collecting signatures to get one’s name on the ballot. A handful of big donors who believe in your values or lots of neighbors who can donate $5, $10 and $20 is more than enough to buy inexpensive signs for people to put in their yards, direct mailers, ads in the newspaper and to run a simple, informative website. And it’s way easier to do that with a year to go rather than in the short run-up of the 2022 election season.
Name recognition tied to smart ideas presented in interviews, at forums, debates and meet-and-greets is what gets good people into public office. So to the candidates who won’t be appointed, do not be defeated. Use this moment to launch your campaign. Begin talking about your ideas with neighbors. Help make our city better even if you don’t win or even if you don’t ultimately run. We are all bettered by civic involvement.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
