A Changing of the Guard : Attention Politicians: Something Is Bothering Voters

The whispers of discontent rose to a shout this week as local voters throughout Los Angeles County voted for change. The turnout at the polls was too low, as it is in many elections, and some campaigns reflected disturbing ethnic tensions. But the uplifting news was that the embers of daily democracy burn not only under repressive regimes in faraway places but under the entrenched political powers in Southern California as well.

It was a breakthrough election for what journalists call the “outsiders,” dozens of political neophytes who were elected by ousting longtime incumbents. Actually, the winners were not outsiders at all, but the ultimate insiders: citizen politicians who challenged the status quo. At a time when new blood in elective office is about as common as a California year with too much water, consider some results from elections in 56 cities:

--In Huntington Park, two Latino candidates were elected to the City Council, the first to be elected in a city that is now 91% Latino.

--In Lancaster, the high-desert city elected its first-ever black councilman against better-financed opponents. “The voters saw a good, honest man and they voted for him,” said one neighborhood supporter.

--In La Puente, three veteran councilmen--two of whom had been in office almost a quarter of a century--were defeated. The incumbents had not even bothered to campaign very much, reasoning that few residents were interested. They were wrong.

The news from Tuesday’s election wasn’t all wonderful; in some cities, there were undercurrents of tension between the emerging majority, Latinos and Asians and blacks, and the old majority, whites. No-growth and pro-growth candidates often bickered in ways that were unproductive. It’s not a question of either/or, but finding a balance.

Democracy is predicated on the idea that ordinary men and women are capable of governing themselves, and Tuesday’s election suggested that ordinary people are doing their job at the polls just fine. The numerous instances in which incumbents were voted out of office were examples in vivo of why proposals for limiting the number of terms elected officials can remain in office are unnecessary. Lots of voters in Southern California, frustrated about growth and congestion and fair representation, obviously were unhappy with some of their longtime community leaders. So they replaced the old guard with a new one--not because of some arbitrary term limit but because voters made a conscious decision that it was time for a change. Government improves through more citizen participation, not through the use of preset electoral timers or other trick mechanisms.