My Life and Times, part 2.

I have never been fond of politicians. That is not a particularly profound statement, since who does? Many years ago I made the statement that “anybody who runs for a particular office is inherently unqualified for the job by the very act of running for it.” Admittedly that is a slight exaggeration, but only slightly.

Ironically, I actually ran for political office once. When I was a graduate student living in Whippany, my family had a good friend Ralph who was closely involved with the Democratic power structure in Morris County. One day we were all sitting around chatting at my parents’ house when Ralph made the comment that the Hanover Park Democratic Committee was looking for a candidate to run for the township council. Morris County at that time was–and still is–overwhelming Republican. The township council that year had 1 Democratic member (which itself was somewhat of a surprise) and 4 Republican members. Each year, the party which had the majority on the council selected the mayor from their ranks, in some instances rotating the position.

So Ralph turned to me and said, “We have one candidate who is running in the primary, but he would like to have a running mate. Somebody who is young and will appeal to the younger voters in town.” He paused momentarily. “Are you interested?”

My immediate instinct was to refuse, but as I thought about it, I realized what a great learning experience it would be to run for political office on the local level. So I agreed to do it.

The following Tuesday was the primary, and I got 7 write-in votes, which made me the second highest voter-getter in the Democratic primary, so I was on the ballot. My running mate coordinated the campaign, which consisted mostly of attending township council meetings, walking door-to-door to meet the voters, and writing a weekly article for the local newspaper.

Attending council meetings was an eye-opener, since I realized quickly that I had absolutely no knowledge of local issues (and thus verified my theory about people running for office being inherently unqualified for the position). Going door-to-door was excruciating for somebody as shy as I was, and I did it as infrequently as possible. Writing for the local newspaper was my strength, and I think I did fairly well at that.

Hanover Township was 3-1 registered Republicans versus registered Democrats at that time, and as the election neared I realized two things: (1) I had virtually no chance to win the election; and (2) thank heavens for that! I had no qualifications, no real interest in devoting much of my life to political issues and, if we won the election, the Democrats would have the majority of Township Council members and I was likely to become mayor eventually!

Everybody at Democratic headquarters was anxious on election night, hoping to win, while I was anxious lest I win! Fortunately, we lost the election 2-1 which was a moral victory of sorts, and saved me the horror of becoming a real politician.