Injecting party politics into nonpartisan races hurts and limits Tri-Cities | Editorial

Nonpartisan Tri-City elections, ideally, should focus on where the candidates stand on local issues — not whether they fall in line with a particular political party’s ideology.

But sadly, that ideal is not the case in Benton and Franklin counties. Our nonpartisan races were hijacked by partisan politics several years ago and the process has been distorted ever since.

Once the political parties started getting involved in endorsing or recommending nonpartisan candidates, the dynamics changed. Political rhetoric found its way into the conversation, clouding the debate over important local matters that have little or nothing to do with political party platforms.

It’s unfortunate. When it comes to local races, it should be more important for school board and city council candidates to demonstrate that they will think for themselves rather than be beholden to a particular political party.

After all, as the old adage says, there isn’t a Republican or Democratic way to fix a pothole.

But it is doubtful political party leaders in Benton and Franklin counties will ever go back to allowing nonpartisan races to remain truly nonpartisan.

They believe they are providing a service to their members by letting them know if there is a candidate with the same political bent as their party.

In many cases, local government positions can be a jumping point for higher elected offices at the state and national level. It makes sense, then, that political parties want someone from their team involved at the grassroots level.

And it’s for these reasons that “nonpartisan” has become a misnomer in so many Tri-City school board and city council races.

So as we head into the summer campaign season, the only way to combat the injection of partisanship into nonpartisan races is for voters to do their own research instead of relying solely on another group’s pick for office.

Along these lines, that’s why it was such a shame that only eight of 20 people who filed for school board positions in Pasco, Richland and Kennewick were initially invited to a candidate meet-and-greet Monday evening.

Leaving that many candidates out is a disservice to voters in the community.

The gathering was supported by the Student Community Coalition for Tri-Cities, a group that has been promoting full-time, in-person learning during the pandemic. It also was promoted on the Benton County Republicans’ Facebook page and the Tri-City Republicans Facebook group.

Shelly Burt, a Richland parent who helped arrange the event, told the Tri-City Herald that the Republican groups did not organize it.

She also told the Herald that any candidate could attend, and that the gathering was set up by her and another parent, who is a teacher.

Still, with the infusion of partisan politics dividing so much of our lives, it’s understandable that some of the candidates initially left out wondered if the event was motivated by a Republican agenda.

Danica Garcia, a candidate for the Richland School Board who did not get a formal invitation, said she feels like the candidates who were invited “represent a particular slate of viewpoints,” but that the “public needs to be able to hear both sides.”

She’s right.

Currently, there is a lot of debate over how Tri-City school boards managed classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While it’s always easier to look back and criticize than make decisions in the moment, this is an issue that hopefully will not need to be addressed in the future as schools are supposed to fully reopen next fall thanks to the vaccine.

But since it was such an emotional topic, the more conversation we have, the better. Not all candidates fall exactly on one side of all the issues, and leaving some of them out of the debate isn’t healthy or productive.

The campaign season is the perfect time for our community to delve into important matters affecting the Tri-Cities. But that won’t happen if people are fed only one side of the argument.

The primary election is Aug. 3. Voters should get cracking and start researching candidates now. There’s a lot more to local races than party politics.

This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 6:07 AM.