Editorial: All politics are local
Political parties, the media and the business community need to start working together to increase participation in local governments and politics.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
4/15/2007

According to a Journal Sentinel analysis published earlier this year, two-thirds of local elections this spring in Ozaukee, Milwaukee, Racine, Washington and Waukesha counties went uncontested. Milwaukee County did better than its neighbors: 70% of all races in the other four counties went uncontested, and the figure reached a whopping 87% in Ozaukee County.

That means either citizens are very happy with their local governments or they just don't care enough about those governments to get involved. We suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle but closer to the "let's not get involved" side of the equation.

That's a shame. Local governments make most of the decisions that affect the daily lives of citizens. Crime, fire protection, garbage collection, street and highway maintenance, public transit, water quality, the quality of education and a host of other matters are all decided by town supervisors, village trustees, aldermen, county supervisors and school board members.

How much you pay in property taxes and the value of your home - probably most Americans' biggest investment - depend in large part on decisions made by local governments. Economic development depends on local governments working together and enacting policies that attract businesses and families.

The election process provides not only the officials who make those decisions but another platform for debating the questions that shape the future of every community.

Maybe what's needed here is an effort like the one under way in Madison, where the business community, the media and the Democratic Party are working to get more people engaged in politics and government.

Among other efforts, a program called Civitas, sponsored by the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce and Wood Communications Group, seeks to educate participants about local government and to get them involved.

The program is now in its second year, and response has been good, especially from the business community. That sector was critical in getting Civitas off the ground, said Jim Wood, president of Wood Communications. The number of contested elections is up, and business people are taking the message to the workplace that participating in government and politics is vital.

"The quality of life really gets decided at the local level," Wood said. "It becomes hugely important to be engaged."

Political parties, media and the business community of southeastern Wisconsin need to figure out a way to get more citizens engaged. The less participation there is, the more alienated and disenfranchised citizens will become.

That's something that should be of concern not only to politicians and the media that cover them but to the Milwaukee 7, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, chambers of commerce and groups such as the Waukesha County Action Network.