In a mayoral election, would you be more likely to vote for the candidate who avoided a felony conviction when he plead guilty to taking someone's change purse from a gas station counter eight years ago, or the candidate who lost his drivers license when he refused a breathalyzer test 30 years ago and who fudges his resume on current campaign literature?
The correct answer, of course, is "none of the above," but that just leaves the decision to small cadres of true believers who are spinning these facts to elect their favorite.
That's the situation faced by residents of Fraser, a tiny suburb in southeastern Michigan. To call Fraser a Detroit suburb would be giving it undue credit. It's more of a suburb to the suburbs of Detroit. Fraser is wedged between Sterling Heights, where some xenophobic citizens recently made news when they insulted their Muslim neighbors by rallying to prevent a mosque from being built, and Roseville, a lower-income city in a constant battle with blight.
Recent mayors have not fared well in Fraser. Either they refuse to run again, citing their need to take long showers to remove the layers of political dirt flung at them, or they are thrown out of office, and then down the well, by opponents waving pitchforks and torches. Fraser is a messy political town. This is semi-ironic since the city has a weak-mayor system, with the city manager holding most of the power and responsibility. There are book club secretaries with more juice than Fraser mayors.
Now residents must choose between two low-rent scoundrels, each doomed to failure before ever taking office. Neither's sins are unforgivable, but the candidates' inability to face them squarely reflects politics on a larger scale. To claim that a shortcoming that a voter might find alarming doesn't matter because it was relatively minor or happened a long time ago insults the electorate far more than the original lapse in judgement.
Fraser's election barely matters to most residents, let alone anyone else in the state or country. But until citizens can expect some integrity from the minor-leaguers, how can they ever ask it from the majors?