Politics
Is this year's Town of Lancaster's election for the birds?
By Lee Chowaniec
Sep 6, 2007, 12:45

Believing there's no real campaign competition for this year's Lancaster town elections to affect change, an individual who writes on the SpeakUpWNY message board under the pseudonym "Foot Fungus", has initiated an Internet campaign to energize registered voters who want to change the status quo. No one will argue that his campaign is for the birds.

Foot Fungus (herein called FF) has launched a write-in campaign. His endorsed slate of candidates is a bunch of birds. Although his intent has garnered some support on the message board, there are those that question the logic of such an action, stating that it can lead to no change, as the birds are unelectable, and that it's a throwaway vote that could have gone to someone electable.

Reading what FF and his supporters have to say about politics in Lancaster, it would be remiss not to have FF's thought process analyzed. To that end, I contacted FF and asked him the following questions. Some of Foot Fungus' answers were taken from his posting on the message board.

Question: What Party are you registered with?

FF: I am an unaffiliated registered voter - a "blank".

Question: There are candidates that were endorsed by all major and minor political parties. Why are you not supporting any of them?

FF: The people that run the local political parties in Lancaster have taken away any opportunity for residents to make any kind of change possible. The Republican Party is fractured, with some members defecting to the Democrats' power structure and others just becoming disinterested as their party dissolved with internal power struggles.

The Democratic Party has taken away the opportunity for change by stifling primary challenges, there were a bunch of rumors that there were going to be challenges within the sitting party, but those challenges ended quickly and quietly. Maybe that's good for them, they're doing exactly what they want and that's fine with them.

Just reading the message boards and in listening in to conversations around town, it's not hard to see that there is discontent as to how OUR town is being run. Whether it's
taxes, development, infrastructure, schools, traffic, water pressure, etc., people are starting to speak up.

Question: Many voters will look at your "H. Henslow Sparrow campaign" as being senseless, having no merit to affect change. How would you respond to such individuals?

FF: I don't see it as senseless at all. Somehow the current party structure needs to be broken. If information can be made easily accessible on how people can become active in the political parties they belong to, hopefully they will get involved and change what they've lent their name to as a party member and get the parties back to the principles that their members originally signed on to support.

In that sense, it's about a principle, not a candidate. To run a person means running with a certain agenda. This is not geared towards one party or set of ideals. It's about taking back what belongs to you, Republicans, Democrats, Indies etc.

I've heard many people complain about taxes, overcrowded school classroomsand long bus trips for the kids, infrastructure problems-traffic, water pressure, development without thought for improving the infrastructure beforehand. Everything always seems to be an afterthought, or as the Supervisor put it once in regards to another subdivision stop sign request, of which there have been many, "It's just like fine tuning".

Question: What about the supervisor race? Don't you see a choice there?

FF: There are really only two town positions open to challenge, the supervisor race and the town justice race. All major and minor parties have endorsed Mark Montour for the town justice position, that's already over.

Many people heard the Supervisor say during the last election that that was his last
race. Now he's running again because he has some unfinished projects he wants to see completed.

As for Republican Party candidate Jim Ward, challenging Giza for the supervisor position, who is he really?

According to articles in the News and the Bee, he didn't even know his party endorsed him for the supervisor position, he believes the position is a part-time job and has no visibility and/or Party support or funding.

It is my opinion that the well-oiled Democratic machine will crush him and it's the same old, same old change speech anyway.

According to one member of the message board, the only thing that has really been heard about Mr. Ward is that he is trying to distance himself from the Republican Party, and well he should.

The Republican Party in Lancaster has been fractured and rendered useless in Lancaster. Why even Senator Volker and Congressman Reynolds have been angered by its demise and have said so as well.

Both major parties have disheartened their supporters. That's why the ranks of the unaffiliated and independent parties are growing. Which by the way is a good idea if you're ticked off at your party.

Change to a blank, lessen their ranks and make them campaign for your vote. Unopposed candidates don't really need to campaign do they?

Question: Yet, what is the purpose behind supporting a write-in ballot for birds? They can't be elected into office?

FF: Like it said in the campaign announcement, it's a matter of having a choice when exercising your right to vote. How many people recognize today's political parties as the parties that they grew up with? Whichever way you lean, right or left, are the conservative or liberal principles that you believe in adhered to by your party? It's hard to tell which party is which anymore.

What makes this country great is that we have the right to have our own opinions, debate our views, ask questions of those that will govern. That's not happening and it's time to take back the system and put it back where it belongs, with the people.

There is a choice when it comes to exercising your right to vote, and the folks in power (by the way, the folks in power are not necessarily the politicians themselves) want you to choose one. Try to guess which one:

1. Become active and try to change the status quo.

2. Stay home and watch the ballgame, because there is no choice, they're all the same anyway and nothing ever changes but the shoes and the dirty undies.

They re counting on you to stay home and let the internal party faithful decide for you. After all, you (?) keep electing them, so you must be happy with what is going
on in our town (They elected officials) say this stuff...really).

Question: Running any kind of campaign requires money and exposure. How do plan to take this to the people?

FF: Mostly through the Internet - just like I contacted you. There are campaign ads on YOU TUBE and there will be more coming right up to election day. Where does it say in the rules that the people can't run their own campaign?

We will be placing images for flyers on the message board that can be printed by anyone who feels inclined to do so.

Hopefully we'll see the campaign grow and some homemade lawn signs will begin to appear. This is a campaign that needs to come from the residents and really, it's up to them. We've just provided an option for anyone that wants to send a message in an election where there is no choice.

Once again, as it was stated in the initial campaign announcement: If they take away your choice, make your own. And that's the simple premise of H.Henslows Sparrow. We do have the right to vote for a candidate of our choosing, and
we can write it in.

Concerning the H. Henslows Sparrow write-in campaign, this needs to be made clear from the get go:

IT"S NOT ABOUT A PARTY.
IT"S NOT ABOUT A CANDIDATE.
IT"S NOT ABOUT CONSERVATIVE.
IT"S NOT ABOUT LIBERAL.
IT"S NOT ABOUT CREATING A NEW POWER STRUCTURE.

IT IS ABOUT SENDING A MESSAGE

No meetings, no fundraisers, no hierarchy. And hopefully it will spark a lot of discussion here (that's a good thing-that arena of ideas thing).

Question: What message are you trying to send?

FF: This is about reclaiming your right to voice your opinion in the voting booth when they try to silence your voice.

There are candidates running unopposed.

There are parties not supporting their candidates at all.

I hate to keep going back to the original statement, but at what point does one say, "Hey, isn't this a bit odd that there are no choices in the voting booth anymore"?

In our great country, the government belongs to you! Somewhere along the line, someone decided to change that, and all right under OUR noses.

We do have the right to vote for a candidate of our choosing, and we can write it in.

A lot of people fought in many circumstances for the right to vote, it must have been pretty important.

Question: What do you say to anyone affiliated with a party that has reservations about voting against their party even though they may not feel the candidates, all incumbents, are serving their needs?

FF: The two Town Council positions are running unopposed, they're real people who can serve, while a bird can't. They'll be there regardless.

In the Supervisor race, there really is only one candidate, the challenger has no support, so he'll still be there too.

The Town Justice race as mentioned before is all but a given, so he'll be there too.

To lose to a bunch of birds would send a message that would be heard loud and clear and hopefully re-energize the Town politically.

Question: What is the ultimate goal of the campaign?

FF: It is my hope that this campaign, in some way, can restore the parties back to the principles which they were founded on, and out of the hands of the party bosses.

Also, hopefully we can generate some good discussion on the message boards and around town as to the process of creating new committee people and garnering enough support of the party members to take back the parties to which many belong, but no longer believe in.

Question: So what can we expect from you and your supporters in the future?

FF: As mention before, there's the flyers, campaign ads and from there I'll refer you to the announcement once again. It pretty much speaks for itself.

Hopefully individuals who will support this cause will:

a. Register and/or get others to register to vote.
b. Make a sign for Mr. Sparrow and put it on your lawn.
c. Snag images from the posts that will show up here from time to time and e-mail them to friends in Lancaster.

The birds will be putting up images for use as flyers, if you've got a spare hour or two, run off a hundred on the home computer and distribute them in your neighborhood.

That's just a few examples, be creative.

Sending a message doesn't have to bear the appearance of anarchism, make it fun.

Involve the family, our candidates are fun little birds, kids love to draw. A child's' artwork for Mr. Sparrow adorning your lawn will make them feel great. And they'll be learning that their voice can count too in the process.

The kids are the future and their knowledge of what happens in their town is very important. Teach them young. There's tons of kids in Lancaster now, just look at the schools (and the school budget), hopefully we'll see some great artwork out there.

I'm sure there will be some pictures of some of the signs attached to posts on Speakup.

And please, take your children with you when you vote, show them how simple the process is.

Please remember, although you may have a problem with how YOUR government is run, the actual candidates are real people with families too, so nothing mean or disparaging. Keep it civil.

Question: So in essence, this is all about choice?

FF: It is about regaining your choice and about informing voters as to what goes on in the town of Lancaster. Seeing that right now there is no "lesser of two evils" to vote for, no party out there that will truly represent the best interests of the community, It's time to reclaim the system and return it back to where it belongs.

Many people bitch about the way the town has been developing, look at the candidate choices being given and ignore the process because there is no opportunity for personal choice for real change.

Voting for the birds is a protest vote that may just trigger a positive response from our status quo governing body.

It will certainly send the message that people have taken notice and in return served notice that they need to start listening to their constituents. Next time, their might be candidates running as a write-in.

If we can do it here, it will go to show that a successful campaign can be waged with minimal funds and means, and with a strong voice of the people.

It affords one the opportunity to make their voice heard! Lets hope it's a wake-up call to those in office to better serve their constituents. Make those running unopposed have to make their voices heard as to what their intentions are.

It's not about a candidate.

It's not about a party.

It's about your right to choose.

It's up to you!




For a little background on Henslow, please see this thread, Environmental Karma Strikes Lancaster.


To kick off the campaign, Click Here to see the Sparrow's first campaign ad.




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