Guest Opinion | District 2 Candidate Rick Cole: Pasadena Deserves Better Campaigns

Can we sink any lower?

I’ve knocked on doors throughout District 2. The vast majority of voters pay little attention to their City Hall. Yet they care deeply about their community and its future. They just don’t see much of a connection between their lives and the workings of politics and government.

Ironically, local government affects their lives even more than what happens in Sacramento or Washington, DC. Whenever Pasadena residents flip on their lights, walk their dogs, wash their clothes or go to the grocery store, city government directly affects their quality of life, safety and standard of living.

City government is responsible for electricity, water, streets, parks, libraries, sidewalks and other vital services. It’s the key to safety from crime, fire and natural disasters. It regulates much of our lives from how we water our gardens to the health of restaurant food to what can be built around us. 

All this is ultimately in the hands of eight people elected by the voters. They hold the part-time jobs of Mayor and City Councilmember, being paid $30,000 a year (Mayor) or $20,000 (Council.) It’s not a job for the politically ambitious. It’s a job for people who want to serve this community.

On March 5, we elect six of those eight people. Two are running unopposed. Mayor Gordo is a prohibitive favorite. In fact, incumbents have always had an edge – only one has lost in the last thirty years.

What’s truly disheartening is what’s happening in the final days before the election.

Voters are being buried in an avalanche of slick mailers, social media ads, and phone calls from state, county and local candidates — all trying to grab their attention. All that advertising costs enormous amounts of cash, putting special interests in the driver’s seat for picking up the tab. The worst are the ugly personal attacks that demonize opponents with misleading claims and bogus accusations. 

I have a thick skin from three decades of public service. What disturbs me about the toxic attacks coming right at the end is not that I take them personally. It’s that voters inevitably feel even more alienated from these strangers clamoring for their votes. Some dedicated citizens hold their noses and vote for the candidate who seems least objectionable. Others simply don’t bother.

I don’t have an answer. People wouldn’t spend tens of thousands of dollars on negative attacks if they didn’t think they worked. Yet it seems like such a destructive exercise in undermining what little interest and trust people still have in their government.

I do know this. Pasadena deserves better. The hundreds of caring and thoughtful voters I’ve talked with aren’t interested in somebody’s dirty laundry. They’re interested in better lives for themselves, their neighbors, their kids and future generations. 

They deserve campaigns that speak directly to those concerns. That’s the kind of campaign I’ve tried to run. We’ll see how that fares on March 5.

Rick Cole is a candidate for the City Council, District 2. He is a former Mayor who served as District 2 Councilmember for 12 years (1983-95). He is currently the Chief Deputy Controller for the City of Los Angeles.