Lou Calcagno, pictured above, is in his sixteenth year of service as an elected member of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. He is also a farmer, and in a recent speech to the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau he urged farmers to run for office.
Let me second the motion.
And let me suggest that teachers, nurses, social workers, biologists, fast food workers, lawyers (yes, even lawyers), artists, bus drivers, and those in any other occupations you can think of should be similarly encouraged.
To my mind, the key factor in deciding whether or not you should run for office is whether or not you will run and serve as a "representative" of the voters, as opposed to running because you would like a good paying job with health benefits, or because you need a second (or third) retirement check, or because you think you are God's gift, or for any other reason that is basically focused on the "me," as opposed to the "we."
Elected officials are representatives. That's the basic assignment. Not everyone is suited to the task. Individualistic motivations are always suspect.
Here's one way to figure out if you should run. Are people coming to YOU, to ask you to run, without any prompting or prodding? This is different from people responding "yes," when asked whether or not they will support you as a candidate.
Think about it.
And don't let your occupation be a hindrance. Farmers? Absolutely! And....
Well, you get the picture.
The picture above, by the way, was taken by Sentinel photographer Shmuel Thaler. He takes a lot of very nice pictures!
Image Credit:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/watsonville/ci_26043788/monterey-county-supervisor-urges-farmers-run-office
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