For the 41st Ward, this election will hopefully end the complacency and fatigue felt by a community governed by a long term career politician. "Time for a change", my 76 year old neighbor says. "The best thing the voter can do is vote for someone new each election...it keeps everyone honest". I couldn't agree more.
The office of Alderman needs to have term limits. The only way to end the problems that often accompany career politicians, specifically, to much power, manifested in corruption, complacency and other serious issues, is to pass term limit legislation. In Chicago, incumbents have been known to win elections using the power of their office, and the resources they have at hand.
An old friend of mine recently wrote about incumbents who have been in office to long:
" political seniority puts persons in tremendous positions of power even though they have small bases of voter support". He cited a few politicians like Ed Burke and Mike Madigan, who have amassed an incredible amount of political power (and huge political war chests) over the years..so much power & money, who can really run against them?
What do our aldermanic candidates think about term limits? Hopefully, none of them want to be a career politician and will introduce and support the legislation to limit any one person's time in office....
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