Current Events > the more involved I am in politics, the more I think local gubmint is important

(+) Yeah! (+)

and also, incredibly easy to break into

all of you angry liberals and conservatives should go run for city council right now, especially if you don't live in some megacity like NYC or LA

the local level is where the sausage really gets made anyway
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fenderbender321 posted...

I'm trying to look up how to run for City Council where I live, but there's no information anywhere on the website or anything.

Why do they make it so hard to run? You should be able to just login to their website, and click that you're going to run, pay like a $50 fee or whatever it costs to have the extra ink put on the ballots for my name, and then wait for the results.

you probably need to physically go to the city clerk's office, though my city does have online info on what you need to do: https://www.littlerock.gov/city-administration/cityclerksoffice/board-elections/
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i wanna be like councilman jamm in parks and rec
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AlephZero posted...

i wanna be like councilman jamm in parks and rec

you easily could be

go do it!
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City gov't is where I spend all of my time advocating IRL. Your voice definitely carries more weight in local politics.

Unfortunately, in my state (CA), cities increasingly have less and less ability to actually govern their own local affairs. The state is slowly but surely reclassifying everything as a "matter of statewide concern," meaning that city councils will eventually have no power to decide anything.

The latest affront to local governance: CA SB-649 which allows wireless telecom companies to install refrigerator-sized boxes on any public right-of-way or adjacent to any utility pole, without the consent of nearby property owners, the city or the county. Because if AT&T wants to put a huge utility box next to your property, that's supposedly a matter of statewide concern and not a local affair.

The more I've researched local politics, the more irritated I've become over how much the state is able to get away with because not enough people are paying attention. Get involved while you still can, while there's still something left.
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