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When it comes to elections in Mountain Home, my wife and I are pretty private people.
While we don’t hide that we’re Republican, we also don’t shout it from the rooftops, and we don’t use the Observer to endorse our preferred candidates.
In fact, we’ve never felt the need to. Most of Baxter County is deeply Republican and the few Democrats living in the county are often more conservative than their progressive peers in large metropolitan cities.
We simply vote in peace, and report on what local candidates say during their campaigns and the election results on election night.
The most you’ll hear from us politically is usually when we uncover a major story that’s going to have an impact on a local election. A prime example would be last year’s millage election over Mountain Home High School.
And while I’m most certainly not going to tell you who to vote for in this election (that’s your business), I am going to publicly air a complaint I have over this year’s city council race in Mountain Home.
For the past week or so, my phone has been ringing off the hook with complaints over City Council candidates Michelle Linehan and Paige Wolfe and their introduction of partisan politics in their races against City Councilman Bob Van Haaren and Jim Bodenhamer.
Local residents, both Republican and Democrat, have been wanting to know if what Linehan and Wolfe are doing is legal, and they also want to air their dislike of partisan politics being interjected into what was supposed to be a non-partisan race.
The issue came to a head for me yesterday morning, when kneeling in prayer underneath a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St. Peter’s Catholic Church before lighting a prayer candle for safe travel to my sister’s wedding this weekend, my phone once again rang with someone wanting me to address this issue.
So, here goes.
Under state law, City Council seats are non-partisan, and Mountain Home has done a fairly good job of keeping each political party out of the spotlight during its council races. The council is currently composed of a mix of Republicans and Democrats, with Republicans being the majority.
Now, the only way to know which members are Republican or Democrat is to know them personally or to attend other political functions in town. During City Council meetings and committee meetings, members of the council behave in a non-partisan manner and work together despite their political differences.
I believe, after getting to know the members of the council, that all of them strive to do what is best for Mountain Home, even when they do make mistakes or make decisions that are not popular with the loudest members of the public.
It’s a refreshing break from the partisan politics that dominate our lives on a national and state level.
Well, that break is over, with Linehan and Wolfe leaning into partisan politics and openly calling themselves conservative candidates on the campaign trail and in campaign advertising. Together, both candidates have also received thousands of dollars from the Baxter County Republican Committee and hundreds from the Baxter County Twin Lakes Women’s Club.
Both candidates have heavily outspent this year’s incumbents, who have not received money from any political party.
Now is this illegal under the letter of the law? No, it’s not.
In fact, Director Graham Sloan of the Arkansas Ethics Commission said it was perfectly legal in a phone conversation earlier this week, so long as the candidates and the committee fill out their reports properly. Under the law, the Baxter County Republican Committee does have the right to contribute to any candidate it wants to.
Both candidates also have the right to identify as whatever they want to on the campaign trail. That’s their First Amendment right and it should be protected.
With that said, on a personal level, I’m not happy that some City Council candidates are going partisan this year and would prefer that, at least on a city level we, as a community, remain non-partisan.
Taking the City Council race into party politics is, in my mind, breaking the spirit of the law and the spirit of local city governance. It’s also breaking the unwritten rule that Van Haaren and Bodenhamer have respected throughout their race and their time on City Council.
We’re neighbors. We should want the best for each other. Washington DC politics shouldn’t be dictating how we live our lives or who we are as a community.
Let the swamp stay in the swamp.
I like Mrs. Linehan and Mrs. Wolfe. They were more than willing to sit down and engage in polite conversation about the future of our city. I respect Mrs. Linehan’s devotion to sticking to her guns on hard topics. I think they would both do well if they win next week.
I’m just not interested in having more “conservative” politics in my life. Just like I’m not interested in having more “progressive” politics in my life.
I moved to Mountain Home to get away from the partisan politics that seem to have the rest of the country in a death grip 24/7. I know a lot of other people in town have too.
So, while I wish Mrs. Linehan and Mrs. Wolfe all the best in this election, I’m going to have to respectfully say, “Make City Council Non-Partisan Again.”
