Conservatives Choice: Adapt or Perish

The Boise City elections are over. All three candidates I endorsed, lost. I don’t use endorsements as a way to make election predictions. I’m not trying to win a prize in the endorsements I offer. Rather, I endorse candidates who represent the type of values I believe them and will justify my serious endorsement with a serious effort.

I stand foursquare behind the men I endorsed. I know Lucas Baumbach and Dan Dunham and know how hard they’ve worked over these months, and they have fought honorably, and I wish they had a better outcome. Dave Litster made a real push this last month and given how long TJ Thompson campaigned, that Litster got 43% of the vote is pretty impressive.

The question that is raised in my mind is what do Conservatives need to do to have a better result? Conservatives must adapt to the moves of our opponents. I don’t care whether its chess, checkers, or Nine Men’s Morris, you can’t play any game the exact same way regardless of your opponent’s strategy.

The Democrats have decided that campaigning ought to be a 9 1/2 month affair that costs a lot of money. Now, if conservatives persist acting like you can challenge that with a 1 month campaign as happened in the Litster case,  they’re going to turn it around.

City elections ought to be short campaigns run by ordinary citizens. However in tactics, we must deal with what is, not just what we’d like there to be.  Baumbach and Dunham began to lay the groundwork far earlier than any other candidates and still lost. This to me, means we have to go even earlier.

In addition, while I appreciated seeing the GOP take a step towards being involved, I think it needs to be much more in terms of active money raising and distribution of literature. GOP Precinct Captains could use involvement in city elections as a dry run for learning streets and getting the hang of literature distribution in advance of the next election.

The ultimate solution to many of the problems faced in our City is to break it up into wards. To run for the City Council requires nearly the same amount of money as running for Mayor because you’re trying to reach the same constituency, the entire city. That makes the campaign cost too much. If the city were divided into wards, the cost of running a campaign would be a fraction of what it is.

Of course, the Ward system is hard to pass given that the North End’s propensity for turning out in in City elections allows it to control the whole council and no council member will oppose the most powerful neighborhood in the city, the one that votes them up or down. So, creating a ward system would have to be done by citizen initiative in an even numbered year when the whole city could vote, and such a measure could pass. Of course, conservatives are loathe to use the initiative process. I remember Dr. Kirk Sullivan once warning the Central Committee of the danger of becoming like California with a very long ballot. However, I’d humbly suggest changing our council system is worth the risk.