ELECTION TO PUBLIC OFFICE BRINGS INCREASED ACCOUNTABILITY AND SCRUTINY
Will tell you that if one is elected to public office, one can no longer control one's environment.
Crises come up. One has to answer to constituents, answer to reporters.
Beyond a point, one cannot in public office, hide out behind one's entourage or behind staff members. Staff members will take the rap for you up to a point, but eventually, they become fed up.
Even if one is elected to public office and finds ways to staff an office mostly with those who share one's background and belief system, there are others working in the statehouse who have been there a long time.
Those others at the statehouse have powerbases of their own. They will see you and your entourage coming and going at all hours.
You cannot scare or fire them. Guards and janitors see plenty, too. There is an infinity of ways to leak information to journalists.
These old timers know what is normal culture in the statehouse (or in city hall, whatever city you get elected to). They will be quick to resent being shut out or shoved aside.
And, lobbyists will have been at the statehouse for a long time. They remain while various officeholders come and go. They know what is normal culture vs abnormal for the statehouse. They cannot be scared off, either.
Congressman Dellums had a good record. Then he was elected Mayor of Oakland, California.
For some reason, Dellums had trouble functioning in his role as Mayor. He didnt make himself available to reporters, his wife took over a lot of matters that only the mayor was supposed to handle, and this lack of availablity was greatly resented by his constituants, and by the media and contributed to a very low morale at City Hall.
This was commented on. Boy was this commented on.
This is what one faces if one is elected to public office and fails to show up. And...Dellums had won respect and affection during his very many years in Washington DC. People were genuinely sorry that he could not come through as Mayor.
But they didnt cut him any slack. Why? Because there were consequences. The welfare of an important city was suffering.
Attention had to be paid and was not.
The citizens, City Hall employees, and the journalists had plenty to say.
Mr Dellums was not re-elected.
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Oakland mayor's wife now his top adviserSep 5, 2008 ... Most Oakland residents don't know it, but Mayor Ron Dellums' wife, ... leadership
and direction in City Hall has driven morale among city staff to ...
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