Maybe it was “like moths to the flame,” or “lemmings to the sea,” but something turned last Monday into the political equivalent of the retailer’s “Black Friday.” We saw a crushing surge of candidates eager to finish the term of freshly-resigned county commissioner Greg Skrepenak. His political corpse was still warm as 68 people applied for the abruptly vacant spot.

That’s 68, as in three score and eight, as in five dozen plus. It’s enough to have three new commissioners every year for 22 years. It’s enough to field 13 basketball teams, seven baseball teams, or three full football teams with separate offense and defense players. When was the last time 68 people attended a commissioners meeting?

Perhaps more to the point, as near as I can tell through our archives and the county election records available on line, that’s nearly twice as many candidates as ran in the last four commissioner primaries combined. Here’s the tally from what I found: Nine candidates in the 2009 primaries, 10 in the 2003 primaries, 12 in the 1999 primaries, and eight in the 1995 primaries.

When Todd Vonderheid resigned as commissioner in June 2007, only seven people applied to finish his term.

What drew so many people to the seat of power this time? What did the job of county commissioner offer now that it didn’t offer in the last four elections? How can the equation change so completely from 2007 to 2009?

Perhaps it’s the fact that a budget battle looms, and all those applicants saw a chance to sway county finances for a year with one of their first votes. It sounds like heady power.

Maybe the corruption probe nabbed so many people that the reformists felt we’ve reached a tipping point, a rare occasion when a single person really can reshape the whole system.

Maybe it’s the fact that “home rule” is back on the table, another attempt to change the form of county government. Some of the applicants may have seen the vacant commissioner’s seat as a chance to quash the effort, others as a chance to make home rule happen.

Maybe there are just that many honest people eager to serve.

An easy way to get power

Or maybe the reasons are far more prosaic and pragmatic. Frankly, it’s never been easier to get so much power around here.

Gather 250 signatures on nominating petitions? Pshaw! Just get 10 to sign and you’re in.

Fork over a fortune on ads, posters and other campaign costs? Fuggedabout it. The winning team of Skrepenak/Petrilla may have spent more than $50,000 in the 2007 primary, but the warp speed process used last week required not a penny. Apply by Monday afternoon, interview Wednesday, and the winner is selected that night. The courts running the process even waived the filing fee, typically somewhere around $100.

Figure out the right mix of campaign promises and attacks on opponents to win the most votes? Don’t bother. Even with low turnout in 2007, Democratic candidates needed at least 20,000 votes to secure a nomination. With only seven judges making the decision last week, all you needed was four votes.

I suspect the replacement of Vonderheid only attracted seven people because his term expired in five months. Hardly time to have any impact. There were two years remaining in Skrep’s term.

All of which raises a question for which I have no answer:

Should we make elections cheaper and more streamlined to welcome more competition, or does the process weed out dabblers and dilettantes?

About the Author

Mark Guydish covers education for the Times Leader. Reach him at (570) 970-7161 or mguydish@timesleader.com.

A West Hazleton native, I worked as a service technician repairing electronic mailing and shipping systems, a bike shop owner and an Emergency Medical Technician (among other jobs) before landing a reporter job at the Times Leader Hazleton Bureau in 1995. I started by covering primarily politics in Hazleton City and outlying municipalities, eventually became "social issues" team leader in the Wilkes-Barre office with the accent on education, and headed the Hazleton Bureau for a spell before returning to full-time reporting, my preferred position. I'm an avid cyclist and rode across the country in 1990, a trip of more than 5,000 miles from New Jersey to Seattle and down the coast to San Francisco. Years in the Boy Scouts made me a life long backpacker and camper, and I've yet to find a better way to enjoy the quiet lure of winter snow than cross country skiing.

Mark also writes a regular blog for timesleader.com.

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