Would you run for public office?

Our small town is in a quandary. I just had a visit from one of the council people asking me to attend the city meetings and also think about filling a spot on the council - even Mayor (woo Sarah Palin here I come!)

Everyone else is running away from the situation. All the other council members don't want to be mayor. My husband and I are retired. I grew up here, but moved away for 25 yrs. They seem to think we are level headed and smart - lol...

She told me what goes on at the meetings. She gets called ugly names by one of the local yokels. You have to have very thick skin for local politics.

What would you do??

But given the opportunity to be elected to a position where I could positively contribute to my community, i would go for it. Ugly names, insults and petty small town (assuming this is a smaller community) smears be damned.

Be part of the solution. Yeah!

I would run (and I have, am a locally elected elections official and Democractic State Committee member.)

he would be perfect for the job. I would be happy to work in the background.

This is a town of 3500. For some strange reason, they love outsiders, and have no problem throwing rocks at their neighbors.

Hubby would be perfect - he is not from here.

you need to to make things better.

from the left of a DINO. I was projected to get about 6% of the vote and wound up with 42% of the Democratic primary vote. In the midst of the campaign I was embroiled in a political yard sign controversy that wound up going to the Washington State Supreme Court and our campaign won the legal battle 9-0. It was one of the most intense things I have ever done. 18 hour days six to seven days a week for a year. But it was also one of the most enriching in both meeting people and learning about myself. I highly recommend anybody who is toying with the thought of entering electoral politics, to do so. We need good people in the political arena. While I did not win the race, we did permanently move the conversation to the left in our county of 750,000!

So I probably could if I wanted to. At my age, anything I do is part time. So if it's a possibility for you, it seems like a good opportunity to do your civic duty and maybe make a difference in spite of the trolls there trying to disrupt the meeting.

and people always ask to put their election signs in our yard. Boy was I surprised the first time we did this - eggs were thrown within 30 minutes.

So far no one has sullied our Obama sign.

They may seem nice, but there is too much "quid pro quo" under the table in many small town jurisdictions. Rules get bent all the time and exceptions are always made for "family friends." This isn't what democracy was supposed to be about.

Signing up for that is a recipe for giving myself a heart attack.

they want him out, but no one wants to take his place.

We have had so many scandals. One city secretary embezzled $250K to feed a cocaine habit. she just got sentenced to 10 yrs.

There are other things going on. We would have to go into this with our eyes wide open and shut. Kind of knowing we won't come out clean - almost a sacrificial lamb - a transition for a new administration.

It's not an environment that I want to work in. If I'm angry all day long because there's a new scandal breaking every six months with several more scandals boiling under the service, I'm simply shortening my lifespan, and whenever I start muckraking, I freaking guarantee you the entire "good ole boy" network of kickbacks and bribery will turn against me. I will be savaged in the press, probably by the same newspapers and local tv stations owned by the same good ole boys, and I will be painted as unfit to lead.

There will be a day when I have to fight, but at this point, I'd rather pick them outside a corrupt institution. I'd rather march in the street than try to cut compromises with greasy politicians and corrupt bureaucrats and the money men who run around bribing them all.