‘Decline in civility’ cited as a reason for so few contested races

The majority of municipal races in the Fort Smith metro area are uncontested in this year’s Nov. 5 general election and a decline in civility – especially with social media – may be the cause of a lack of contested races.

Though candidates will not be certified by the county election commissions until Aug. 22, uncertified lists show that most city races in the area are uncontested with only the incumbents filing.

Of the four Fort Smith city ward – city director – positions up for election this year, three were declared the winners because they have no opposition. Ward 3 is the only position in which the incumbent, Lavon Morton, did not seek reelection. Russell Bragg, Lee Kemp and Carl Nevin filed for the Ward 3 position and will face each other in the Nov. 5 general election. Jarred Rego, Ward 1, André Good, Ward 2, and George Catsavis, Ward 3, faced no opposition in their races.

Only two of the city council races in Greenwood are contested this year: Alderman Rod Powell (Ward 1, position 2) will face challenger Cameron Kehler, and Alderman Ralph Meeker  (Ward 3, position 2) will face challenger Christian Jones. Tim Terry, alderman for Ward 2, position 2, is unopposed, according to the uncertified list.

And none of the seats for the Alma or Van Buren city councils are contested. All those who filed for the seats are the incumbents. In Alma, Larry Blassingame (Ward 1, position 2) did not file for reelection to his position, and no one else did either. A representative with the Crawford County Clerk’s office said that in the event no one seeks election to a city council seat, the city appoints someone to fill the position.

“I believe a part of the reason for less interest in running for local offices has to do with a decline in civility in political discourse,” said Dr. Farreol Hansen, an adjunct political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. “I read some of the political comments in ‘Hey Fort Smith, What’s Happening’ and some of them are downright nasty and offensive.”

Hansen said he left the Facebook group because he decided there is no benefit to wasting time reading such low level discourse.

“Perhaps for similar reasons potential political activists at the local level decide not to run for office,” Hansen said. “It’s a cost-benefit analysis-based decision.”

He said potential candidates for office may have decided that the benefits of office are not worth the cost of having to deal with the negative feedback they might receive from the citizenry through the various channels of social media. They may also feel the need to protect family from being subjected to the same, he said.

Another thing possibly keeping potential candidates from throwing their hat in the ring is the built in advantage the incumbent often has in a political race.

“(There is) a belief that the ‘good ole boy network’ is impossible to beat,” Hansen said.

Pat Powell, executive director of Leadership Crawford County, said looking on the national level can show why people are hesitant to want to run for political office.

“People bring out so much negativity in campaigns. Why would anyone want to put themselves out there to have to deal with that?” Powell said.

She said the public trend to research a person’s life, find every negative thing they may have done 20 or more years ago and exploit it keeps many people away from even small municipal or county races, simply because they don’t want to have to go through that. Powell said many people who would do a good job serving in local offices are often kept at pay from simple insecurity.

“They don’t really know what to do,” she said.

One fix for this is for a civic or community organization to host a workshop that would walk potential community leaders through what it takes to run for office.

Rego, who first ran for Fort Smith city director four years and is unopposed in this election, said he first decided to run because he feels that serving his community is a civic duty. He said it is something important to do in order to help Fort Smith be a city where his children are happy growing up and hopefully will want to stay as adults. He encourages others to get involved in a way that is not just on social media or sitting at a keyboard. Doing so, he believes, might encourage them to want to become more involved in the policy-making positions of a community.

“Go to meetings, forums, and gatherings or even presentations of various civic organizations. Listen to what people are talking about, their concerns, what they are happy about, what is working, what is not,” Rego said. “When you look at the community more fully and non-virtually, you can really plug-in and make a difference.”