I say 'decide' because those who show up to vote are the decision-makers - so, regardless of who you support, if you don't want someone else deciding for you here in Downtown Edison, then it's important that you get out and vote.
Make Your Voice Heard! The People of Edison are better than its politics!
As with any election, You should vote for the candidate(s) that you believe will best serve Your interests and not be bound by partisan party lines or affiliations or by listening to anyone else telling you how you should vote.
Now before I go any further, let me recognize Lori Bonderowitz and Veena Iyer - the 2 sitting board members not seeking reelection. While I may consider the former a loss to the cause and the latter a lost cause, the fact that I disagreed more often than not with them doesn't diminish the fact that these are volunteer positions which take a lot of time and effort and both of them deserve a Thank You for their volunteered service on the board and to the community.
Now, moving on - clearly, if you ever read this blog and its many posts about what this Board does and doesn't do, what they say and don't say etc - then you'll understand why I'm not a fan of this Board (and why I refer to them as the Board of Mythomania), it's ineffective Leadership, its lack of Oversight over Super Dr. Richard 'Looking for the Exit Ramp' O'Malley, its Misdirected and Out-of-Control $pending, its Bloated Buckets of Money they call School Budgets, its lack of Transparency and General all Round Disrespect for the Stakeholder that Pays 90% of their bills - the Residents and Taxpayers here in Downtown Edison.
This board has been and still is in dire need of change and these elections are an opportunity for me to see if any of the candidates who wish to fill the 3 open spots recognize any of this and wish to open up the closed club for the selected few who want to keep the status quo over there on Mythomania Lane.
So, with that in mind, I looked at all of this year's candidates websites and links to their FaceBook pages, read all their material including their letters and endorsements in the local papers and listened to them at the ETEA Candidates' Night. I also understand and respect the ETEA's position of Not endorsing candidates this year since they believe they are all viable candidates for their Union.
That being said, the 4 candidates are:
William Araujo
Richard Brescher
Theresa Ward
Shannon Peng
William Araujo, Richard Brescher and Theresa Ward (Incumbent) formed a ticket together and Shannon Peng is running alone.
While I'm sure that they're all well-meaning people, given all their printed material, listening to them at Candidates' Night and for the reasons in previous posts about this upcoming election, I don't believe any of them will be successful in serving the interests that I have and laid out above. I get the sense they're acting more out of calculation than conviction.
As a result, and although not on the ballot, I'll be casting my vote via write-in for None of the Above.
Anyhoo, as I said above, you shouldn't care who I or anyone else votes for - You should Vote for Who You Believe Will Best Serve Your Interests - but while you're doing that, you should care if things go on for another year the way they've been going on, which it certainly looks like now no matter which 3 get in.
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