We’ve hit the T-minus seven-day mark until Election Day 2010. In just one week, we will have the answers to all our burning questions: Can Democrats keep control of Congress? Will President Barack Obama be able to handle a divided Congress if Republicans win control?
Are the people of Delaware really going to elect Christine O’Donnell? Hopefully, we will also be able to put to rest the ongoing Advisory Neighborhood Commission soap opera involving A Voice 4 U and ANC 3D 02 Commissioner Tom Smith. What was a serious matter has now become a tumultuous affair, with complaints filed, accusations hurled and themes of a bad daytime drama rising from the fracas.
Smith originally voiced support for AV4U’s initiatives to get students on the ANC, but is now seeking to undermine their campaign through multiple complaints to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics.
While the complaints may or may not turn out to be consequential, they do seem to suggest that Smith is a bit scared of the threat AV4U might pose. While AV4U should have been more upfront about their true intentions towards Smith, the fact that he is now scrambling to find a way to take down their campaign through technicalities as opposed to hard politics is disappointing and counterproductive to AU-neighborhood relations.
The actions of AV4U have not necessarily helped the cause either.
AV4U is a student organization, which allows for some mistakes to be made. We’re students. We’re attending college to (hopefully) gain some knowledge, and we admittedly don’t have the same experience as our elders in the community.
However, some tactical blunders have been made and could undermine the campaign. Some of the questions that have arisen from the petition and two formal complaints filed deal with the legality of the campaign and their tactics. We can’t yet say for sure whether some of the allegations made are true, but we do know that AV4U has not been forthright with information about their legal counsel. This information could help The Eagle – and the whole community – better answer questions raised by these complaints.
We hope that the student candidates will continue to speak for themselves over the coming week. While AV4U has done a good job in finding and supporting the candidates, now is time for the candidates to show the AU community and the neighborhood that they are to be taken seriously.
Furthermore, we implore all students interested in the issues concerning the ANCs to actually attend meetings. If AU students claim to be interested in issues concerning the ANC, they must show it by sitting through the bureaucratic details like any other concerned community member.
While we can only hope that, like all popular daytime soaps, the drama will conclude as soon as possible, we cannot hold our breath until Nov. 2 lest we wish to go blue in the face. What we can hope for is a return to the real reasons for this election, which is to determine who will better serve the community as a whole - not who can make the most noise in the preceding days.
