The world is run by people that show up!

The world is run by the people that show up. That's always been the case whether you're talking about the PTA, the youth soccer league, the Utah Association of Realtors or politics. Especially politics. While the rest of the world is consumed by which Republican talking head will take on President Obama, who's really making the decisions that will affect your day to day life? It's simple. Follow the 80/20 rule.

You know the rule. 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Or in our line of work, 80% of the volume is done by 20% of the agents (or is that really 10%!). However, I'm talking about Tooele County politics. In our case it's a 90/10 rule. So, what do I mean? Sad but simple.

As the Chair of a prominent political Party in Tooele County, people stop me daily. The question is simple, but my answer isn't. "Who's going to be the GOP nominee for President?" My answer is always the same. "I don't have the slightest idea, in fact I haven't given it much thought" They are always shocked to hear this. How can the Party Chair not follow politics? I will shoot back at them. Who is the Chair of the Tooele City Council? Who Chair's the Grantsville Planning and Zoning commission? Who sits on the Stansbury Park Improvement District Board? Who is your School Board member?

90% (that number again!) can't answer any of these questions. It boggles my mind that all these people can tell me who placed 8th in the Florida straw poll, but don't know who runs the entity that is going to raise their property taxes in the next couple of weeks. Or the elected officials that are dealing with huge revenue shortfalls and are looking at laying off public employees. How about the folks that are running a local water district in this, the second driest State in the Union?

We just had municipal primary elections in Tooele and Grantsville a couple of weeks back. Each of those cities was paring the field down from 12 to 6 candidates for 3 seats. At first I was excited about the fact that so many people were interested in serving the public. Then I talked to a few that didn't really understand the "job" the were applying for. Then you get some dropping out. You get more that don't show up to the one opportunity for a meet the candidates night. A couple don't even go to the trouble to buy any signs, so no one knows they are running. In Tooele, that means we end up with six "serious" candidates, just what need for the November general election. The problem is that 12 filed, meaning we have a Primary, at a cost of $18,000! But, that's a different rant...

The whole point of the original rant is this. On Primary day, 9% of eligible voters in Tooele and 10% of voters in Grantsville turn up to vote. 90% of the public will have 10% of the public make the decisions that will start taking affect on their daily lives very soon. Tooele's City Council meets every other week. They always have a full agenda, not that anyone besides the 6 members of the public that show will know...

As a Realtor, I know how important these elections are. Knowing building ordinance changes, or as we call them here, "the pretty codes", can affect my ability to make a living. It also affects the quality of life in my town. Getting the sidewalk on the road to the elementary school means a bit more to me that the issue of taxing the ultra rich, a club I'll never belong to. Before you yell, yes I do understand the issue and how it will affect me. But, I gotta tell you, knowing the sewer treatment plant downstream is working right because my City has smart folks running it sure makes me sleep better than knowing who the President is playing golf with.

I sleep better because I put those people there, Berna and I. We registered to vote. We attended the events to get to know the candidates, and we pushed the button. Us and the rest of the 10%. On second thought, stay home everyone. My vote was 10 times as meaningful because of everyone that stayed home. Now that I think about it, who WAS the 8th place person in the Florida straw poll?