My Buddy, the Mayor
You’d think that in a dinky little town, there wouldn’t be much reason anyone would want to run for mayor – it’s certainly not likely to be a stepping stone to anything, except maybe another term as mayor. The mayor does get a salary, but I don’t think it’s as high as the salaries of mayors in big cities (NIS 33,000 a month plus expenses). 
The municipal elections were nearly a week ago already, but they just finished counting the votes in our town – not that the race was particularly close, but they only got through with the soldiers’ votes Friday. Applying the term “municipal” to the town where I live is a bit of a stretch; it’ more like a “village” around these parts. And in small town Israel, the race for mayor gets personal. There were three candidates – call them Herzl (also the current mayor), Yigal, and Yossi. There are three distinct neighborhoods in this town, with Herzl and Yossi being from the richer one, and Yigal from the working class neighborhood.
All three candidates were very active in pursuing votes – to the extent that they probably called or visited almost every one of the households in this town of about 8,000. I actually wrote a story about this town for the Jerusalem Post a few years ago, quoting Herzl liberally; since then he’s always gone out of his way to say hello to me at town events. Herzl spoke to me personally numerous times about how important it was to vote for him. He also had a web site, a jingle, and “robocalls” – trying to appeal to the high-tech vote, I guess.
Besides mayor, the parties represented by these three fellows were also running for spots on the town council. Two of the people on Yigal’s list live on my street, so of course I got numerous phone calls from them. After expressing an opinion to one of them, he kept me talking about how wonderful his guy was for nearly an hour! You’d think there wouldn’t be that much to talk about in a such a small town, but there you go. Not only that; on the night before the election, this neighbor brought Yigal over to my house (not the most convenient time, either) to chat about the issues – for 20 minutes! You’d think a candidate would have other things to do that try to convince two voters individually.
Yossi I never met, but he, too, had his agents out and about, calling up everyone they knew (including me). Same story: Vote for my guy because he’s the best (that’s why these people joined those lists, I guess).
In the end, Herzl won, Yigal came in second, and Yossi was a distant third. Monday morning quarterbacking, I could say that all the candidates used strategies from the high school political playbook – getting people to talk their friends into voting for them. Herzl did use more sophisticated methods (although I doubt that’s why he won). And Yossi’s commitment to the job was clearly not as strong as that of the other two, because he clearly didn’t press the flesh as much as the other two. Perhaps I should forward my findings to potential candidates for national office?
From Barack to Barkat: A Look Back at the November Elections
The just concluded Jerusalem election, while certainly not as important on a world stage as last week’s U.S. presidential contest, was in many ways spookily similar to its overseas counterpart. For those who supported Nir Barkat, who beat his main competitor Meir Porush by a commanding 9 points (52 to 43 percent), the sheer jubilance that erupted across the city (though certainly not in all parts of it) reminded me of what I’d heard from so many friends and family in the U.S. after Barack Obama bested John McCain.
That tolerance had triumphed over extremism. That inclusiveness would now prevail, not sectarianism. And most importantly, that hope, pride and patriotism had been restored – in the case of Jerusalem, at a time when many residents were saying, either outright or under their collective breaths, what one Beit Hakerem resident was quoted by Haaretz as lamenting: that this election would “determine whether I’m staying” in the city.
The resemblance between the two races extended beyond just the similarity in the winning candidates names. One candidate preached change, the other more of the same. One ran a relatively clean campaign, while the other (or his supporters, it’s not clear) spent much of his political capital on negative attack ads.
To wit: I took a walk several days before the election. There were posters claiming Barkat was really a closet leftist; that with only five years in politics he “lacked the experience” to manage such a complex city as Jerusalem. Sound familiar?
Barkat, to be sure, didn’t run a flawless campaign the way Obama did. He flip-flopped on political positions and took pot shots at low hanging fruit (the light rail fiasco, the over priced “Bridge of Strings”). Posters appeared on city streets in the waning days of the contest almost messianically proclaiming him “HaTikva,” a play on words: the literal translation is “The Hope” but it’s also the name of the Israeli national anthem.
But Porush had his own Sarah Palin debacle when he was caught on tape boasting that, following his presumed election, “there would be no more secular mayors anywhere in Israel within 10 years.” Once publicized, that statement more than any others did the job of scaring away any remaining voters still on the fence.
Jerusalem Elections 2008: The Most Crucial in Years
Several weeks ago I gave an Israeli take on the upcoming U.S. elections. But there’s another vote in November that may prove to be just as momentous for this country. I’m talking about the Jerusalem mayoral elections.
Five years ago, the status quo was broken when the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community fielded a candidate for mayor for the first time…and won. Before that, haredi Jerusalemites were careful not to promote one of their own for fear that an Orthodox mayor would be forced to sanction “non-kosher” activities (such as the annual Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade). Accordingly, the last two Jerusalem mayors, Ehud Olmert and Teddy Kolleck, were both secular.
But in 2003, Uri Lupolianski ran and narrowly defeated millionaire businessman and philanthropist Nir Barkat. Lupolianski captivated both secular and religious voters with his background as the founder of the Yad Sarah organization which is dedicated to helping the elderly and disabled. He received numerous awards for his work there: the President’s Volunteer Prize; the Knesset Speaker’s Award; the Kaplan Prize for Efficiency; and in 2004, the Israel Prize.
Lupolianski wasn’t a bad mayor – he kept a decent balance between the different groups in the city and even allowed his dreaded Gay Parade to proceed (earning him considerable scorn from his constituency). More non-kosher bars and clubs opened during Lupolianski’s term than ever before.
The biggest criticism many residents had of Lupolianski was that he was dull– he showed little vision other than canceling the Safdie plan to build 20,000 homes on prime forest land that was decried by local environmentalists.
But he’s not running this year. Lupolianski is a member of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party. In order for the entire haredi community to throw its support behind a single candidate, Degel hooked up 5 years ago with rival Agudat Yisrael, with the provision that when the next elections rolled around, an Aguda candidate would run.
The Aguda candidate is Member of Knesset Meir Porush. And that’s where the trouble starts.
Vote for Sisso
The November presidential elections in the US aren’t the only game in town. Next month will also see municipal and mayoral elections in a number of Israeli cities and towns.
Most of the attention has been on Jerusalem, where incumbent haredi Mayor Uri Lupolianski has been replaced on his party’s ticket by longtime MK Meir Porush. Just a couple weeks ago, former Shas leader Aryeh Deri was barred from competing against Porush because the timeout by law following his 1999 conviction of fraud and bribery hadn’t finished yet.
And of course, the great white hope, secular high tech candidate Nir Barkat is hoping to wrest the mayoralty out of the haredi hands. And on the side, Russian mega-rich businessman/shady character and Betar Jerusalem owner Arkady Gaydamak is also running on a ‘speak English only’ platform.
But lots of other cities and towns are also holding elections for mayors, with equally scintillating scenarios. Take the Haifa ‘burb of Kiryat Yam. The mayor there for the last 15 years has been one Shmuel Sisso. The veteran lawyer and former Israel consul general in New York been considered such a popular – or powerful – mayor that nobody had even bothered to register to run against him. That is, until just recently, Sisso’s younger cousin Alon, threw his hat in the ring.
According to a Ma’ariv report, Alon, who is running on a Likud ticket, was really only interested in gaining a seat on the local council, but national Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu advised the 38-year-old attorney to go for broke. Older cousin Shmuel, who is running under Kadima auspices, is not happy with the clan competition. Whatever the results in the Kiryat Yam mayoral elections, it will be all in the family.
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