At last Friday's Democratic City Committee meeting, Chairperson Assemblyman Jerry Green used a FARM TEAM metaphor with reference to receiving Committee endorsement as a candidate for City Council office.
This was in conjunction with presentations to the Committee by Council hopefuls 32-year old resident Christian Estevez and 72-year old resident Harold Gibson.
Estevez emphasized his hometown and labor activist roots as well as his campaign experience -- most recently on Jon Corzine's successful race for governor.
Gibson detailed his 50-year career of public service, which has included being both Plainfield's public safety director and city administrator.
One wag observed after the meeting that it was an interesting sort of farm team that took a dedicated player 50 years to get the nod for a Council seat.
In baseball, farm teams are where talent is put to work -- hard work -- and constantly scrutinized with an eye to moving the best players upward in the system.
That's where the metaphor fails in Plainfield. There really is no farm team. And getting moved up seems to have more to do with pliability than ability.
As the current leadership inevitably ages and dies off and Plainfield's future is increasingly left to chance, we will have to face the problem that Oakland, California's most famous ex-pat posed: Is there any there there?
Maybe hopefuls would be better off going the route that Cory Booker took: Make bold moves, build their own team, organize to win, and when they win have something to bring to the table other than the fact that they were on the FARM TEAM.
-- Dan Damon
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1 comment:
Dear Dan...Perhaps the bold move is to bring the two party system back to Plainfield. With no checks or balances, the "ruling" party is free to arrogantly ignore the will and well-being of the public to push forward agendas whose sole purpose appears to be self-aggrandizement wrapped in a veil of "commitment to the good of the community." We need the courage to back another team and make sure our City Council is represnted equally by both the recognized political parties. If you want something you haven't had, you need to be willing to do something you have never done. It is, quite simply, the responsible thing to do.
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