Incumbents: next election is sooner than you think

Any elected office-holder who intends to run again should begin soliciting votes immediately.

Among perceptions by candidates in recent years or decades seems to be the one that categorizes voters as semi-alert to the day's events and stupidly forgetful about anything that happened before yesterday.

It seems, therefore, safe for office-holders to lie, cheat, and steal right up to, say, a few months before the next time they ask for votes.

This realization has been coming on for some time. But only when I had the displeasure of writing about new mayor Diebold's sweet deal with council and the Advocate over a free car for Kathleen Barch did I realize that, though Diebold/Council Finance Committee/Advocate had the balls to stick it to citizens even before Diebold officially became mayor, likely nobody would remember it when Diebold and the finance committee members again ask for the trust, and love, and votes of Newark citizens in the next election.

Well, maybe.

For what it's worth, which isn't much because I don't have that many readers, I've included a new category in this journal. It's the one that asks readers to "read this before the next election."

From now on, you can come here and search for "read this before the next election" and you'll be able to review what seems pertinent as you make your next voting-booth selections. Later I will add this flag to earlier essays featuring, for instance, councilmen and commissioners.

I wish mainstream media would provide such a guide.

Ooops. Forgot. Mainstream-corporate-dishonest media are the root of the problem and the reason for such a wish.