We have been pleasantly surprised — and voters should be also — about the number of potential candidates who have pulled packets to run for public office in Sedona to lead our city.
As of press time there are 13 potential candidates: Four candidates for mayor and nine candidates for the three open seats on the Sedona City Council circulating petitions to get on the ballot.
Candidates have until the end of April to turn in their packets with their signatures. For the purposes of electoral diversity we hope that all 13 gather enough signatures to put themselves before voters and appear on the ballot.
Should you run into a candidate or their proxies collecting signatures, as a voter in Sedona city limits, nothing precludes you from signing more than one petition, even for the same contested seat.
If so, it would be one of the largest pools of candidates since the free-for-all in 2018.
Despite the relatively unpleasantness of the campaign brought by a handful of candidates who thought name-calling and mudslinging would win them a seat — none of whom got elected … hmm, surprising — that race did bring a host of new ideas for residents and city to chew on throughout election season and in the years afterward.
It takes guts to put one’s self in the cross hairs of a political campaign and people who have the moxie, ego or selflessness, idiocy or bravery to declare themselves candidates should be rewarded with a chance to campaign. If their ideas, platforms and stances aren’t up to snuff, we fully trust that the electorate will, in the end, reject them while electing officials with better ideas or ones who most closely align with our values.
Occasionally, bad candidates make it through the sieve of the election process, but recalls or subsequent elections can remove them and being members of a legislative body ruled by consensus and majority rule saps the damage they can do as individuals.
We voters hope that our electoral process means only our best and brightest make it through.
Nothing is worse than officials who get elected after uncontested elections because they falsely believe they have good ideas when the truth is they are serving because they are the only ones who filled out the form.
Be wary if any one of them offers advice on how to “run a successful campaign” — they have nothing of substance to offer other than “fill out a form and pray no one smarter runs.”
As candidates declare themselves you’ll begin to see ads in the Sedona Red Rock News about their candidacy, platform and their endorsements from local officials and everyday residents.
Weigh these candidates for yourself. Check out their websites so you can meet them in person at debates or forums. Read their profile stories on our front page and their candidate essays inside and attend debates between the candidates to see which one best aligns with your values and/or how you think the city should run — it’s a shocker, but sometimes those are not the same thing.
Remember that a uniformity of styles, ideas, demographics, ideologies and temperaments creates a homogenous legislative body when there is no debate, little room for growth, no challenge of authority nor status quo and no diversity of opinion.
Legislative bodies should be contentious, but respectful, combative but conciliatory and in the end, always compromising. Ideologues only help themselves to the detriment of us all. A city council or any legislative body that speaks with one voice or nearly one voice in most matters, does not fully represent the people and the wide diversity of opinions we hold based on our widely divergent ideas backgrounds, demographics, partisan and political affiliations. We should encourage a council with a healthy mix that best reflects our community’s diversity.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
