The Shadow-gloom and Weight of the Sacred

Credit: Charles Fettinger
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfettinger
CC BY-SA 2.0

In Oklahoma City, we just had an election cycle for city council, with my own particular ward needing a run-off election, which was last Tuesday, between Ed Shadid and Charlie Swinton. This particular election cycle was controversial because there was a signficant amount of money spent for city council seats. The Committee for Oklahoma City Momentum is an organization that ran a parallel campaign to Charlie Swinton (and candidates in three other wards) in which $400,000 was spent. (If you're really interested in this, Doug Loudenback has a great post documenting a lot of this stuff and the issues surrounding the city council election.) I had originally planned to vote in the run-off election, but by the time election day rolled around, I was too disgusted with the situation to participate in it.

Ed Shadid decisively won, and most people I know voted for him. I wasn't sold on him. I'm still not, but I think he does have some good ideas and am cautiously optimistic that he will make me regret not voting. Charlie Swinton was, I think, too much of a willing participant in the status quo political machine and that was too unfortunate because I thought he had some good ideas. This is one thing in particular that I like about Shadid, he wants to subvert the status quo political machine. This in and of itself is a campaign tactic, I know. There is always a candidate who campaigns on how the culture of politics needs to change (Obama, anyone?), and the cynic in me says that in six months Shadid will be just like every other politician. But, maybe voters will hold him accountable. Doug Loudenback, who I mentioned above, supported Ed Shadid and I think that Mr. Loudenback has a good grasp of civic politics in the OKC. At least, I really appreciate his opinion and focus in this area.

Here are the things (the first two are similar) about Ed Shadid that concern me:

1. He claimed that the campaign donations received by Charlie Swinton made him beholden to special interest groups. While I think this is true, Shadid--whose campaign was largely financed--claims that he is beholden to no one. Money isn't the only thing that insinuates a reciprocal response.

2. He implied his own moral superiority compared to Swinton in that he did not take campaign donations. This is the flip side of the first concern listed. While I think it admirable that Shadid largely paid for his campaign, I tend to think a spine surgeon is more than capable of doing so. Personally, I'd have rather Shadid accepted campaign donations and then be forthright with where the money was coming from. I'm concerned by the precedent Shadid is setting as "moral". Basically, it limits the good to those who can afford it. Not that we'd ever see a school teacher or principal on the council, but still, such a person couldn't run without campaign donations.

3. Shadid seems to think that answer to crime is more cops. He said as much when he attended the neighborhood association meeting where I live; it is kind of vague on his webpage. I don't think police make a community safer--relationships make a community safer. We need good prevention in order to provide people, especially young people, with opportunities. We need good intervention. Police don't provide these things. So much of the crime I have witnessed is a survival instinct--you can't punish it out of people.

4. At the same meeting, when asked about his willingness to interact with our neighborhood association, Shadid stated that he would be in better contact than past council members to Ward 2 (and Charlie Swinton, for that matter) because he would utilize social networking. Facebook and Twitter have never been great platforms for communication, for building consensus and cooperation. They're great platforms for arguments, for campaigns, but they tend to keep people at a distance rather than bring us closer together. I hope that Shadid doesn't social network in the virtual world at the expense of social network in the real world.

These are my main concerns (there are a few others, but I figure no one has read this far anyway). I do like Ed Shadid overall. I'm not disappointed in him at all; I hope he lives up to his campaign.