COLUMN: Small town politics facing big money changes
I just heard my childhood hometown is being corrupted. Scary part is I’m almost OK with it.
The mayoral election is coming up in Rexburg, Idaho, with bigger politics than ever before. The one-term incumbent, Mayor Shawn Larsen, is hoping to maintain his position. In the most controversial local election anyone can remember (and some of these folk have quite the grasp on small town politics), the current city council president is challenging Larsen for the seat. This is the most expensive campaign season anyone has ever seen – unlike the national media, I’m not referring to the presidential election.
As of Oct. 1, Donna Benfield, the challenger, has spent more than $12,000. Larsen is trying to stay in the game with once-successful habits. His bill is at about $4,000.
When I first heard how much money was being spent, I thought, “It’s about time the local scene finally caught up with real politics.” The ‘progressivism’ I’m accustomed to in D.C. and in my university studies asserts that change is inevitable. Progress is good. The frightened small-town kid inside me whispers, “Don’t give up what you have trying to get what someone else prefers.”
Rural American politics, you see, are different than the national show. Very different, and I’m beginning to believe they need to preserve the community’s culture.
Being in D.C., I get a backstage pass before the show ever steps into the public arena. True to my hopeful ideology, some characters are exactly the same on as they are off ‘the stage.’ Others, on the other hand, take off their costume when the curtains close. It happens less than we fear but more than we all would prefer. It’s sad when I hear conflicting stories about officials and then witness something entirely different in the news. As a general rule, I tend to err on the side of the politician in assuming we don’t always see the big picture on the news. But big and little exceptions do take place.
I still mean what I say when taking the pledge of allegiance, but are we really one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all? Well, this year’s mayoral candidates are free to spend what they want.
I’ve worked with Benfield on occasion in various civic organizations and was, on a standard, impressed. I know the mayor well and have seen some of the effective steps he has taken to improve the city when the opportunity was ripe. He and other mayors have done excellent things to change the city at a pace everyone could handle. The only thing small communities hate is change. Well, that, and maybe that one neighbor who got caught doing you know what. If you know what I’m talking about …
Rexburg is really not unlike Cache Valley. Both are predominantly one religion. Both have a strong pioneer history. The weather is even about the same. Actually, my freshman year I called my family in Idaho to warn them of some killer winter storm just leaving Cache Valley and headed their way.
About one week ago I visited my hometown. I took an opportunity to drive down memory lane. I almost drove into the river next to it unfortunately, but managed to come out alive. The smell of a rare desert rain and the few fallen leaves took me back to Idaho autumns and getting ready for seventh grade in the mornings. I seem to only remember how much I love my hometown when I get to visit.
Did you know my hometown isn’t all that different from your hometown? I wonder if I’ll find old familiarities still intact next time I go home. Or will it have changed too much?
Jacob Fullmer is a junior in political science and journalism taking mental visits to a hometown he knows doesn’t exist just as he remembered it. E-mail him at j.fullmer@aggiemail.usu.edu