Friday, May 22, 2009

ahh.. where to begin?

This is my first post. Be gentle.

This has been a crazy week. For me, most of it centered around Tuesday's primary. I was out, running around, covering any thing I could find on the election itself. But I was disappointed. No one was out voting. I mean, yes, we all know this is a low-turnout year in the cycle.. it's not big crowd draw like the a presidential or mayoral election - but arguably more important. Ray at Young Philly Politics wrote about how voting reform might help the problem.

This Tuesday was my depressing introduction to voting in this city. Depressing because only six months earlier people were LINED up.. waiting super-long to cast a ballot for the first black president. But here in this city, where crime and cronyism are cited as top concerns, no one seemed to care about an election for district attorney or controller. Sorry if that seems boring to you. It just seems sad to me.

I've never really cared for the primary process (hell, I never really cared for two-party system of politics), but that was always in the context of the presidential nod. I mean, I understand it, I just don't like it. An election before the election is confusing to the average Joe.

I talked to a man in Grays Ferry last month who told me that the base problem was education - in Philly, there is something of an education crisis - only half of public school students graduate, only 40% or so of the student body is proficient in math and/or reading - so effective education about government and politics, local politics at that, is pretty damn ugly.

Young people know who the president and the mayor are, but not the district attorney. And it's pretty hard to get fired up about the controllers race. What does he do again? Add to it a crowded field for the most visible race (five guys running for the DA nod that the general public is unfamiliar with) and the long tenure of outgoing DA Lynne Abraham (she held the spot of top prosecutor for 18 years, you can grow a whole registered voter in that time) and there's a recipe for nothin'..

I knew it was coming, but ya let me down Philly.