Recently, the Greenwich Time in an editorial accused the town Republicans of a failure of democracy for nominating two instead of four candidates for the Board of Education. There are four openings, but by law no one party can have more than half the members. The local daily wants both parties to nominate four people, so that eight people would be running for four slots, and the paper contends that to do otherwise is a “failure of democracy.” They are wrong.
The failure of democracy is the quota system which says that for the Board of Education and for the B.E.T. (finance board) each political party puts half the people on the board. A quota system for our most powerful and influential boards, and not the nominating process, needs to be fixed.
The Greenwich Time editorial accurately says, “five quality people had originally come forward to seek the [Republican] party’s nomination” for the Board of Education. As RTC Chair John Raben repeatedly said at the convention the party had an embarrassment of riches. The Greenwich Time naïvely went on to suggest that the party should have nominated four candidates for the two slots it is allotted in the general election. The Greenwich Time wants the party, in effect, to abdicate its duty to put forth the best slate. The party gets two slots, so it nominated the two best people. If the party had the opportunity to fill all four open Board of Ed seats, it would have nominated the four best.
But to do as the Greenwich Time suggests, and put forth four candidates for two slots would be political cannibalism. The four Republicans would be competing against each other, and not the Democrats. It would subject the party to the shenanigans and potential manipulation of people outside the party. Is THAT democracy? No, THAT is political stupidity.
