My first and only foray into politics was a surprising success. Even though I was considered the underdog, I not only won the election for student council reporter, I beat my opponent by a landslide.

I wish I could credit the victory with my impeccable writing abilities or my dogged journalistic skills. I would be lying if I pointed to my adorable smile or astonishing good looks.

More than likely the win was in response to free ice cream and chocolate chip cookies.

Shameless as it sounds, I had to devise a plan to beat one of the high school cheerleaders at her game.

Standing up in front of the class reciting my academic accomplishments was not going to persuade any of my classmates to put a checkmark beside my name on the ballot.

If my opponent was going to handout candy and bubble gum attached to card with cute phrases like “Be sweet and vote Mel for reporter,” I would have to do something bigger and better to buy the votes in the election.

Under a sign that said “Ben will get you the scoop,” my campaign manager and I handed out scoops of vanilla ice cream with homemade cookies.

That day in the school cafeteria, the victory was sealed, and so, too, was the lesson that elections are more bought than they are earned.

Every election season, I recall those high school days and wonder if we learn at an early age that experience and ability hardly compare to catchy phrases and candy giveaways.

Three decades later, I wonder if voters’ attitudes about elections have ever evolved past those school days.

If not, maybe we need to teach our children another way of looking at what is the foundation of our democratic system.

Would voters look differently at elections if they looked at it less like a popularity contest and more like hiring an employee after a job interview?

Think about it. Would you hire the most popular person in town if you knew they would put your business at risk?

Or would you hire the person you knew had the skills to make your business prosper?

Last Sunday, The Natchez Democrat reported that more than a quarter of a million dollars of salaries is at stake Tuesday when voters decide who they want to hire as their newest employees.

Over the course of one term, $1 million in paychecks are given to the mayor, board of aldermen and the municipal judge. That doesn’t count the paychecks of the various department heads the mayor and aldermen hire to run the company taxpayers fund with their tax dollars every year.

That is why we need to elect capable, trustworthy and knowledgeable people to elected office. We pay them lots of money to do a good job for us the investors of the business we call the city of Natchez.

As employees, they handle a lot of money and shape the future of our lives in this tiny corner of Southwest Mississippi.

With such a responsibility, voters need to do the hard job of reading the resumes and conducting the job interviews, before they go to the ballot box.

Forget the ice cream and cookies this year. Go to the polls looking to make a good hire for the next four years.

 

Ben Hillyer is the news editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or by email at ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.