Losing touch
Rencher’s outburst taints watchdog’s image
10/18/2007
One of the most difficult aspects about running for public office must be the intense time commitment necessary to get to know an electorate, raise money, educate oneself about campaign issues and attend debates. It must also be difficult to feel as if you carry on your shoulders the fate of those people whose issues you share. If your campaign runs into obstacles, then the pressure of that responsibility is conceivably quite crushing. Thus, whether one agrees with a candidate or not, there is an argument to be made that political campaigners deserve a certain amount of respect for their tenacity.
Yet there is a point when tenacity can obscure any goal. Persistence often mutates into obsession. In politics, such obsession often takes the form of paranoid, self-absorbed zealotry and candidates risk losing touch with the people they hope to represent.
Ventura saw a depressing display of this transition on Oct. 16, when, before a joint Downtown Ventura Organization (DVO) and Westside Community Council city council candidate’s forum, Brian Lee Rencher — a long-time candidate and tireless local government watchdog — vocally protested his exclusion from the debate (Full disclosure, the Reporter was a sponsor of the forum).
Organizers of the debate decided that in order for candidates to participate, they would have to fill out a questionnaire of issues important to the DVO. The questionnaire would be posted online and was intended as a way for voters — especially those who missed the forum — to have access to candidates’ positions on Downtown and Westside issues. Rencher alleges that DVO Executive Director Rob Edwards changed the rules and only informed him that he would be excluded from the debate after Rencher decided not to fill the questionnaire. Edwards denies the allegation.
Rencher attended the debate anyway. As it got underway he yelled out to ask Edwards why he was excluded. Edwards responded that it was because he didn’t follow rules the other eight candidates had agreed to. Rencher complained that he is a “busy man” who does not have the time to fill out questionnaires. As Edwards attempted to begin the forum, Rencher continuously interrupted, asking at one point, “Is this the way that I’m treated in this community, after everything I have given this community free?”
There was a collective sense of exasperation in an audience that seemed to say “We never asked for anything.” As some members of the audience disputed Rencher’s complaints that he was unfairly targeted, others stepped in as peacemakers.
But the damage was already done. Whether valid or not, Rencher’s concerns about exclusion from the debate were overshadowed by his delusions that the establishment was out to get him. Although Rencher may have felt like an outcast in the eyes of those present at the forum — the crowd was packed to the gills with developers, merchants, city staff, elected officials and professionals — it was also broadcast to an audience of perhaps thousands of voters who quite possibly share Rencher’s frustration with the local government.
What makes the episode more distressing is that Rencher may have permanently turned off voters that may otherwise have supported his candidacy. During this election and in the past, Rencher has made some compelling, well-researched arguments for the positions he supports. He is frequently found at the library or city hall poring over dense government documents, he has a much firmer grasp of his issues than other candidates in Ventura and elsewhere that one might label a gadfly, and he is willing to recognize when the local government gets it right. Indeed, as Councilman Bill Fulton (who is seeking re-election this year) has pointed out in the past, Rencher could have already won an election if the city only stretched between the Ventura Avenue and Seaward.
By characterizing the problem as his problem, though, not the community’s problem, Rencher critically injured his own credibility. It was a worrisome display. Rencher was not acting as a brave activist standing up for freedom of speech and representing a community, but as an isolated individual who clearly is not prepared for the rigors of campaigning, let alone governing. Moreover, Rencher further damaged his believability as a force for positive change when he singled out Edwards, a relative newcomer to Ventura, as the target of his frustration.
In local, state, and nationwide politics there is certainly a role for outsiders that should be cherished and strengthened. It is true, too often the rules are stacked in favor of the status quo. On the national stage there have been legitimate complaints about the structure and format of debates, as there certainly must be countless times over on the local end. But candidates must refrain from letting personal disappointments and frustrations corrupt those complaints. It is a government of the people, not the person.
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