It’s time for non-partisan County Commission seats

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It’s time for non-partisan County Commission seats

Opinions

Friday, 08 June 2012 16:00

The Osceola County Commission has been currently debating whether to put non-partisan County Commission elections on the November ballot. We believe this is a good move. Taking the politics out of politics can be beneficial. Government bodies such as the Kissimmee City Commission and the St. Cloud City Council are non-partisan and we believe those entities are working just fine. In fact, the Kissimmee Commission on Tuesday supported a resolution that all elections in the county should be nonpartisan. Now, the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce has collected most of the petitions necessary to prompt a special election to allow voters to decide whether the County Commission seats should be non-partisan. However, Chamber President Mike Horner said the special election would cost the taxpayers at least $350,000 and attract few voters because of its unusual timing. The better alternative would be for the County Commission to put the issue of non-partisan elections on the ballot this November; this would cost no taxpayer dollars and attract the largest number of voters. We agree with Horner.
Horner adds that non-partisan elections would be no more likely than partisan elections to be decided in the primary. Under a non-partisan system, unless a candidate obtains a majority of the votes in the primary, there will be a General Election. In the last three elections there has been an average of five candidates running for each seat. It would be nearly impossible to receive a majority of votes in a race with more than three candidates. Also, 30 percent of Osceola voters are not registered Democrat or Republican. This opens the door for 30 percent more potential candidates to run for office and 30 percent more voters to help select commissioners. We think this just makes sense.
Horner also noted that county non-partisan races would allow for more minority participation. By contrast, non-partisan elections will let everyone participate in the primary and bring more meaning to the General Elections in the commission districts dominated by a single political party, Horner said. When you open up the election opportunities to larger masses, we believe that’s just democracy in action.
In the end, it’s time the County Commission were nonpartisan, but we don’t believe taxpayers should fit a special bill to decide for themselves.

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#2 Chriss 2013-05-18 09:23

Some political scientists led by Charles R. Adrian began theorizing that nonpartisan elections had undemocratic results. Conclusions drawn from studies conducted by Eugene C. Lee (1960) and Willis D. Hawley (1968) lent empirical support to Adrian’s claims that elections without party labels favored Republicans, increased the importance of ethnicity and incumbency, encouraged personality rather than issue oriented campaigns and depressed turnout.

“Let me say that the idea was received favorably,” Horner said, adding that term limits and lower salaries had not been discussed.”
As you can see disgraced Rep Horner speaking for the Chamber Club in their own words all they cared about was nonpartisan to help keep their picks getting in with even less resistance from the sheeple, who sometimes stop them at the polls. How much money have they and in part our tax dollars been spent on it so far through the Chamber? $60,000 and nonpartisan been proved to hurt democracy.

#1 Chriss 2013-05-18 09:23

How politically corrupt is this paper? As a Kissimmee Chamber of commerce trusty of course you are with the disgraced R Rep. Horner and the Chamber. You should be with the people who overwhelmingly do not support the Lobbyist Horner and the Chamber and do no not want them and YOU to attempt to dominate our local elections. You have exposed yourself! Break your ties with the Chamber and be for the people.

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