COMMENTARY
Bruce Andriatch: ‘Unopposed’ is easy, but it isn’t the best
Hamburg Highway Superintendent Thomas Best has a name that other politicians can only dream about. The slogan possibilities are endless.
Best for Hamburg. You’ve seen the rest, now vote for Best. Simply the Best.
And yet these gems must remain packed away for another day. Best has no reason to wheel them out because no one wanted to run against him this year.
The unchallenged Best.
He will have plenty of company. Next Tuesday’s ballot will be full of races in which there really is no race. Of the more than 150 state, county and local positions that Erie County voters will consider next week, more than a third feature only one candidate.
The mayor of Buffalo is unopposed, as are five of the 15 county legislators. So are most of the town clerks in addition to several tax receivers, town board members and—like Best—highway superintendents.
Are uncontested races good for democracy? No. Every elected official should have to defend his or her record before the voters and be able to answer criticism from a political adversary. But running for office is expensive, and beating incumbents is rare. As a result, uncontested races are inevitable.
Not surprisingly, it’s tough to find any of the these ensured winners complaining.
Best, a former Hamburg police captain, is running for highway superintendent for the first time. He was appointed to the job earlier this year after James Connolly resigned. At the time, he was in the middle of his first term on the Town Board, a position he won in 2007 with nearly 10,000 votes.
But he would gladly trade the joy of that very public validation for what he has this year: a chance to run without worry.
“I don’t envy any of the [opposed] candidates,” he said. “Things get exaggerated. Things get twisted. And sometimes it’s embarrassing for the families of politicians.”
Michael Nolan is completing his third two-year term as Elma town supervisor. He has won the job every which way— unopposed, opposed, after a primary. He’ll take unopposed any day.
“It’s much easier to do your job as normal,” he said of running unopposed. “You’re not . . . making a wrong decision around election time because of the election. That type of pressure is not there.”
Which is not to say there is no pressure. Aurora Town Clerk Martha Librock, who is alone on the ballot for the third time in her four campaigns, said that there is always the worry about a candidate waging a write-in campaign.
“Ask any town clerk who runs unopposed,” she said. “It’s still in the back of your mind—that ‘what if?’ ”
Running unopposed also is a money-saver for candidates, who don’t have to build up a campaign war chest to buy advertising. Some buy signs anyway, as a reminder to voters that their names will appear on the ballot. Best said he didn’t even have to do that; he had about 15 signs left over from his Town Board run that he is reusing this year.
The only problem is that he is running for a different position this year, but Best figured a way around that one, too. “Instead of having to buy all new signs, I bought the word ‘highway’ and glued it over the word ‘councilman,’ ” he said. “ ‘Elect Tom Best councilman’ was the sign. This year it says ‘Elect Tom Best highway.’ ”
Now like dozens of his fellow unopposed candidates, Best can sit back and relax all the way through Election Day.
After that, he can start worrying about whether he will have to run against someone in 2013.
His bigger worry is that his opponent’s name will be Better.
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