Students of this university are fortunate to live in such close proximity to government. A lively state Legislature, a passionate and active City Council – we’ve got it all here. What makes this proximity to government most unique however, is that we’re recognized with dedicated student seats at a number of levels. With the April elections approaching, voters within Dane County’s primarily-student District 5 will once again take it upon themselves to elect our new representative to the Board of Supervisors.
Some will undoubtedly say this is your chance to make a difference. The candidates will claim this seat is crucial for student advocacy on the county level. But based on our sorry history of supervisors and feeble showings at the polls every two years, current candidates would be advised to take drastic steps to distance themselves from past elections.
The Dane County Regional Airport, the Rape Crisis Center, the 911 Center and a whole range of human services originate on the county level. But there’s relatively little our representatives can do, or have done for that matter, to significantly impact how we see these services manifested.
In my experience covering city and county issues as a reporter and editor at this paper, I’ve seen that County Board meetings simply don’t have the immediacy or relevance of decisions made by, say, City Council. The County Board, because of Dane County’s size and makeup, spends much of its time on issues outside of Madison city limits. This means a unique student perspective truly applies to only a fraction of a fraction of the issues discussed. That itself may not warrant an end to the “student seat,” but it plays heavily into the biennial embarrassment that is the District 5 election.
It’s not merely the lack of excitement concerning the issues dealt with; it’s a lack of excitement on the part of the constituency. Students in District 5, they don’t vote with their brains; students in District 5 don’t vote with their gut. We’ve ended up with the local political nobodies of years past because students in District 5 simply don’t vote.
2006’s race drew 673 votes in a district of more than 13,000; 2008 got 460 and 2010 had a mere 264 votes cast. It would be generous to assume students aren’t turning out in droves because they’re disillusioned with the issues under the purview of County Board. It could be the nature of a spring election lacking that certain pizzazz of its autumnal counterpart. From where I stand however, I believe it’s a failure of candidates past and present to stress the nominal importance not just of the County Board, but of the democratic process.
Former Sup. Ashok Kumar really pioneered progressive-minded irrelevance in 2006 with an abandonment of any identifiable student focus. Wyndham Manning performed a nice little disappearing act after he was elected to the County Board in 2008; he could barely answer a phone, let alone tell you what he accomplished during his tenure. The only real effort the current supervisor, Analiese Eicher, put into communicating with her constituency was to let them know a few months ago that she wouldn’t be running for reelection.
Each of these supervisors, elected on vague promises of increased public safety, loosened drug enforcement policies, cleaner lakes or some other medley of liberal-minded, student-friendly buzzwords managed to make an already forgettable position that much more so following their unremarkable public service.
The current candidates for the position, John Magnino of the College Democrats and Associated Students of Madison representative Leland Pan, both fall into the same tired dichotomy of liberal versus liberaler that has characterized the recent electoral history of District 5. Rather than turning out a few dozen friends from their affiliated organizations to win them the seat, these candidates need to make it clear that, despite all evidence to the contrary, this position can and should matter to students.
Jake Begun ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and journalism.
