Let's start off with what I like about local politics.
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The issues are more tangible and closer to you. It's easier for me, a Fort Wayne resident, to care more about flood prevention, trash collection, street maintenance, etc in Fort Wayne than the war in Ukraine. It is easier for me to take action on these issues in Fort Wayne than it is for me to affect the outcome of the war in Ukraine. I still think globally, but I can act locally.
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You know more about local politicians. You don't just see them on TV or online. You see them on the street, at the store, and in traffic. You even might have gone to high school with them. You get to see the unfiltered side of them.
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You, yes you, can affect the outcome of a local election. I've seen one race come down to 12 votes. The losing side probably wished that they knocked on 12 more doors.
Now in the past, crossover voting was a very common practice in Fort Wayne. If a Republican city council candidate supports a project that positively affects your quality of life, then it might make sense to support that Republican candidate if his Democratic rival opposes that project.
I have been spending much of my free time canvassing for Audrey Davis, who is an at-large candidate for Fort Wayne city council. When campaigning for Democratic candidates, the most common question I get is "what party is she in?" On the one hand, I feel like they should care more about her opinions on downtown development than her party affiliation. On the other hand, I'm starting to care more about party affiliation too. This is my first municipal election as a Democrat. I became a Democrat because of January 6th. I would feel more comfortable voting for a Republican candidate if I knew that they were opposed to the attack on the Capitol and that they acknowledged that Trump was responsible. I have yet to hear a Fort Wayne Republican denounce Trump's actions and then go on to win a primary.
On the rare occasion that I make contact with a Republican voter who somehow ended up on my calling list, they will always say that they will not vote for any Democrat. So it feels as if there is an unspoken understanding that many voters are basing their city council votes on their own opinion of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
I wish that our local election was about current local issues and current local candidates. I am getting the impression that it's more about a event that happened more than two years ago and a sociopath who lives in Florida. The presidential coattail effect has always played a part, but it feels like an overwhelming factor this year.
The municipal ballot in Fort Wayne has been designed to encourage cross party voting. There are three at-large positions on the city council and each voter can vote for up to three candidates. Voters have the option to vote straight ticket, but in order to vote for at-large candidates, they have to push the button next to the candidates’ names. This encourages voters to actually look at the candidates’ names before casting a ballot. This usually results in at least one Republican and at least one Democrat winning the at large race because many voters choose their favorites among both parties. I do think this is a good thing, but this year I am supporting only Democrats. My goal is to get all three Democratic at-large candidates elected, which has not yet happened in Fort Wayne in my lifetime. (I’m 44.)
If I talk about this understanding out loud, I fear it will do more to motivate Republicans than Democrats. That’s why you are reading this after the close of polls on November 7th, even though I’m writing this in October.
(FUN BONUS FACT) Immediately to the east of Fort Wayne is the small town of New Haven, Indiana. In 2015, the Republican mayor and the Republican city council ran unopposed, so they didn’t even bother to set up voting booths. They decided it would be a waste of taxpayer money to let the taxpayers vote at all when the outcome was inevitable: it was impossible to vote against any of the incumbents. You couldn’t even write-in a candidate because Indiana requires write-in candidates to submit paperwork and qualify in advance to have those write-in votes counted. Flash forward to 2023: the Democratic Party is running a candidate for New Haven City Council, so New Haven residents get to vote this year.