The dangers of hyper-partisanship in local government

Brenda Kalivianakis

Submitted photo

The Aug. 6 edition of the Arizona Republic warned that hyper-partisan divisiveness is impacting city/town councils and specifically referenced Fountain Hills as an example of a town gone wrong. The paper quotes Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, a professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University: “If local governments see more hyper-partisanship on the dais, it'll be harder to accomplish routine city functions.”

The article points out that local governments are designed to work for the people they serve – functions like fire, police, infrastructure, parks, etc. If local politics becomes hyper-partisan and distracted by national issues, it diverts focus from the mandates that local governments effectively serve their constituents.

The Republic spotlighted the influence of Political Actions Committees (PAC’s) and specifically “Reclaim our Town” (ROT) as a large part the problem. In an Aug. 17 article, the AZ Republic again addressed ROT’s corrosive influence. They correctly identified ROT as creating and amplifying “a ‘dirty’ small town election campaign.” The result was that non-partisan civility in Fountain Hills government took a back seat to emotional, polarized, unproductive, DC-style dysfunction.

City/town councils are the last refuge for sound government unencumbered by political dogmas, by design. Unless we confront this widespread problem, the fierce partisanship taking over councils will continue to erode both the foundations of local government and public confidence.

Good government and public policy are based on thoughtful deliberation of local issues. When local politics becomes more about partisanship and divisiveness and less about municipal stewardship and solid public policy, it leads to stalled decisions, ineffective resource allocation and unmet community needs. When focused on the culture wars and other non-local issues, the public trust drops, cynicism and hostility rise and residents tend to disengage, leaving the most extreme voices to dominate public discourse.

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