My Buddy, the Mayor

November 18, 2008 - 12:28 AM by DavidS · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General

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?

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Tags: election, Herzl, mayor, municipal, robocalls

Vote for Sisso

October 13, 2008 - 1:23 PM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Politics

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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