My Name is Bill and I'm a Republican

It's true! My name is William Clegg and I am a registered Republican.

This evening, Dr. Kert Howard, one of Pocatello’s foot doctors, called me on the phone. He was looking for Bill Clegg. There is or was an art teacher named Bill Clegg in the Poky school system, a distant relative I’ve never met. The doctor might possibly have been looking for that Bill Clegg, but it was my number he called so, after establishing I wasn't that Bill Clegg, I continued the conversation. After all, my first name is William and I am a registered Republican.*

Dr. Howard is running for a seat on the local school board, trying to unseat incumbent Janie Gebhardt in the election on Tuesday.  He was calling me, a fellow Republican, to drum up some support for his bid. He assumed that as a Republican I was also “conservative”.  The “conservative” vs. “liberal” gambit was all he felt he needed to play until I started asking him some questions about why he was running for office and what he planned to do once there.

Regarding his motivation for running, what I gathered is that Dr. Howard supports our local education system. He believes education is worth spending public funds on. He wouldn’t have been able to become a doctor without the foundation of a good education, which was obtained through the public system. Where he believes our current board members are lacking is in their apportioning of funds. He believes the district isn’t spending enough to attract and keep good teachers. It was implied that, once in office, he would be able to look at the budget and correct the problem.

When I asked him to specify where the funds would come from to pay those teachers, we got into a discussion of the percentage of the Bannock County budget that goes into education, not to mention how much is spent statewide on education each year. My impression was that he believes there is enough money in the budget already but that it is being less effectively spent elsewhere. Ultimately, he didn’t specify exactly where in the budget he would trim funds to then reapportion to teachers. (I’m guessing that’s because he hasn’t actually seen the budget or developed a plan.)

Another point of our conversation was that Janie Gebhardt is a very nice lady but that she’s “really pretty liberal.” It was some kind of mild pejorative. The point was made two or three times. Obviously, I was expected to react negatively to the word “liberal” and that should determine my vote right there. It was a sad example of how our politics have regressed to mere name calling. (In all fairness, there was no venom in his voice and it was clear that he had no hard feelings against his opponent. He was just doing what had worked for other Republicans and Democrats up the line.)

I asked the doctor if he had a website, Facebook page, or other web or social media presence to which I could refer and, possibly, refer my friends. He didn’t. He mentioned the website he had previously had for his state senate run a few years back and how easy it was to set it up. This time around, he didn’t have much of a budget, was really busy with his practice (which makes me wonder how much time he's going to have to be on the board), and was running the campaign on a shoestring. At that point, it was feeling like the call was running far longer than he had planned so I didn’t push how simple it would be to set up a Facebook page.

As we were ending our conversation, Dr. Howard thanked me for “grilling” him. I’m sure he didn’t expect it. Frankly, I think that word’s a little strong to use to describe my questioning. I was direct but always polite and friendly. He should have had better answers for me, though. I expect more from those seeking to publicly serve me and my fellow citizens, especially the younger ones.

Dr. Howard, judging solely from our phone call, I think you’re a nice enough guy, and I agree with you that we need to be paying our teachers more. They work so hard, are under so much pressure from so many sides, and we aren't even close to fairly compensating them for putting up with it all. That said, public service isn't a high school popularity contest. You’re going to have to do a lot better than the contents of our phone call to convince me you deserve to take the place of an individual who, at the very least, already understands the detailed daily workings of her job on the board and, at most, is a capable, experienced, and dedicated public servant.

* (I believe in representative rather than direct government, so I can honestly call myself a Republican in its truest sense, in case you were wondering. This handy belief allows my vote to have a more direct effect in local and state politics.)