The Big Broom Factor. Take it. It’s yours.

Vote them out. Every single one of them. No exceptions. Zero tolerance.

I’ve discovered a flaw in my above mentioned plot to reform government in a bloodless coup.  If no one runs the established parties that got us to this brink of disaster will caucus their corpses and install obliging warm bodies to the open seats in the federal, state and plethora of local taxing bodies. That’s how we get to choosing between the lesser of two evils all the time.

In order for there to be reform there must be reform candidates to provide voters with a choice of reform versus the varying degrees of evil.

On the March 20, 2012 DeKalb County primary ballot there are only six contested races: Districts 6, 11, and 12 on the DeKalb County Board, DeKalb County State’s Attorney, 90th District state representative and 35th District state senator. Six of 19 local offices. Incumbents Bob Pritchard (70th House Distric), Tim Bivins (5th state Senate District), Maureen Josh (Circuit Clerk), and Dennis Miller (County Coroner) are all running unopposed in the Republican primary with no Democrats even vying to challenge them in November.

But I am an optimist. Local reform will seed in the 2012 general elections and the 2013 consolidated elections. Why? Because independent candidates and voters have a once in a decade opportunity to invoke change. And, this decade, there’s more angry independents than Republicans or Democrats. Because of redistricting all 24 seats (two per district) on the County Board are up for election. Redistricting in Sycamore and DeKalb means those city councils are up for grabs, too, in 2013. The Big Broom Factor. Take it. It’s yours.

The deadline for independent candidates to file petitions for the 2012 elections is June 18 (first day) to June 25 (last day). A few well placed independent candidates could really shake up local politics. The reform message would be so compelling that the established party candidates might make commitments towards such a needed and welcomed development. Not that there isn’t already an under current for reform in the local established parties. Craig Roman is taking on The Established Democrat (Ruth Ann Tobias) in District 6 on the county board. John Frieders and Jerald Osland are new faces challenging incumbents Marlene Allen and Jeffrey Metzger on the Republican primary ballot for District 12 on the county board. Clay Campbell is facing a stiff primary challenge from Sean P. Smith for DeKalb County States Attorney.

Dissatisfaction feeds reform. A recent Gallop poll suggested that anti-incumbent attitudes are more inflamed now than since 1993, the year before the political climate resulted in a Republican “tsunami.” More than three quarters of registered voters say most members of Congress deserve to lose their jobs. Eight in 10 independents, 75% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats agree that incumbent congressmen should be fired.

The deciding factor between reform and the continuation of the lesser of two evils is are voters really angry enough to come out of the woodwork and step up into leadership roles.