| Special elections provide us the opportunity to campaign for a seat with, usually, little else in terms of elections on the calendar. This is exciting.
Special elections also impose a cost on the communities which have to run them. Personnel, space, machines, mailings, etc. all come with a cost to the community, costs which are not budgeted and can mean that something else has to be cut to cover the expense of running the election.
So I have a proposal, require the departing elected official to contribute the balance of their campaign account to the affected communities to defray the cost of the election that they caused. Marty Walz and Jack Hart both knew that they were running for re-election for a two year term and now, less than a month into their 24 month terms they have decided to leave office for a private sector job. Both have decent balances in their campaign accounts, Marty with over $100K and Jack over $25K, so let's have them help out with the costs. While the details would need to be ironed out, it is very simple, they knew what they were signing up for when they were elected, they decided to leave office, they should contribute their campaign account balance to cover the cost of the election resulting from their decision. The voters and taxpayers should not have to pay! |
