Just like in real–world elections, are the sort of people who spend big bucks to get elected really the sort of people you want to govern? |
Should the APA or AICP Presidency go to the highest bidder? Skip to solution
Of course not, but three of the current candidates for APA President–Elect have spent thousands of dollars to get elected:
 | Dennis Gordon says he spent $10,000 when he ran for APA President–Elect in 2000. [To be fair, we do not know how much Dennis is spending this time.] |
| Mary Kay Peck says that she will spend just as much as Dennis did two years ago. Look closely at her expensive postcard mailing — it really does illustrate pure sloganeering and style over substance. She takes a no positions on anything … sounds like a real–world politician. If she sent the card to all 30,000 members, she spent over $10,200 on postage alone. |
| Roger Hedrick says he spent over $2,000 out of pocket when he ran for AICP President. [To be fair, Roger has told us that he does not intend to spend more than $200 this time.] |
The only candidate for APA President who has never spent big bucks to win a nationwide APA election is our top choice: Gary Johnson.
He has pledged to spend no more than $500. We have no gripe with any candidate who spends that little, or even a $1,000. But when you get into the thousands of dollars, something is very wrong.
It is believed that no candidate for any of the Regional APA or AICP seats has ever spent anywhere close to the $2,000 to $10,000 the other three candidates for APA President–Elect have spent when seeking nationwide office. We have seen nothing to suggest that either candidate for AICP President–Elect intends to spend more than $100 or $200.
Impact on APA/AICP: All this excessive spending continues to discourage many good, quality people with different viewpoints from even running for nationwide APA or AICP office, especially if they do not have the backing of the APA/AICP establishment. The spending has been made possible by APA’s power elite which has been determined to keep itself in power.
We can find a simple solution by applying sound planning practices.
First, identify the cause of this big spending by so many candidates for APA or AICP President–Elect.
The cause: Postage to 30,000 members. The cost of postage alone to send postcards or brochures to the entire APA membership runs from $6,300 to over $10,200, depending on whether the card requires 21 cents or 34 cents postage. Skip to suggested solution
The Details of the Cause: Pure Politics!
Over a decade ago, the majority of the APA Board and AICP Commission sought to counteract the totally independent, grassroots newsletter Inside APA, that your editors of this website published. For details, click here. We were sending our newsletter to a mailing list comprised of APA members we met at APA conferences — people who told us they wanted to know about the issues before the Board and Commission met and voted. It was a way to inform regular ol’ members in advance to enable those of us then on the APA Board to report their views to the full Board and Commission. It was the only way APA’s governing boards heard from regular members rather than just from the APA power elite, for lack of a more descriptive term.
Now most members get their news about internal APA matters through their chapter newsletters and, formerly, from Planning magazine. Both print only the official line. Chapter newsletters have tended to speak with a single voice. We often published an issue of Inside APA prior to APA/AICP elections in which we made recommendations and revealed the inside scoop on how candidates actually voted when they were on the Board or Commission.
The candidates slated to run against the independents had no desire to do the hard work necessary to build their own grassroots mailing lists. So they got the majority of the APA Board and AICP Commission to authorize distribution of the APA member mailing labels to candidates. It did not take long for the first establishment candidate to spend a few thousand dollars on mailings. The escalation in spending has become pretty intense.
A solution that most effectively addresses the cause:
Stop giving candidates the APA mailing labels.
Without the labels, there really is nothing to mail, and nothing to buy stamps for — unless you want to build your own grassroots effort.
A Workable, Affordable Alternative:
Instead of giving out mailing labels, APA/AICP should provide free space on the Internet for all candidates to establish websites of their own. The URLs should be published with the candidates’ position statements. Problem solved — at virtually no cost to members or candidates.
Return to The Cause.
