Lack of candidates: A sign of the times?

LACONIA — With the filing period for candidates for city office closing today, signs are pointing to the vast majority of races being uncontested.

Mayor Andrew Hosmer and all six councilors have filed for re-election.

Hosmer is facing a challenge from Tyler Gonnion, who is making his first run for public office. The only contest for City Council, based on filings received by the City Clerk’s Office as of Thursday afternoon, will be in Ward 2 where incumbent Robert Soucy is facing a challenge from Laura Dunn who currently serves on the Laconia School Board.

Two of the current councilors have lengthy tenures. Both Ward 3 Councilor Henry Lipman and Ward 5 Councilor Bob Hamel have served on the council since 1996. For Ward 1 Councilor Bruce Cheney and Ward 4 Councilor Mark Haynes — who are both so far unopposed — this would be their third terms. Meanwhile Soucy and Ward 6 Councilor Tony Felch are completing their first terms.

That there are not more candidates seeking municipal office does not come as a surprise, in the view of people who have served in local office before.

Paul Fitzgerald, who served two terms as mayor in the first half of the 1990s, sees two factors that make holding office unappealing. One is the time commitment. The other is the increasingly toxic environment that public officials need to expose themselves to.

Fitzgerald said while the amount of time he spent on mayoral duties varied, between 15 and 25 hours a week was not unusual.

“That covered everything from meetings, to ribbon-cuttings, to calls from constituents,” he recalled.

But he said the growing lack of civility that public officials are subjected to, and that some officials themselves display, is particularly distressing.

Just recently a Laconia School Board meeting turned into pandemonium when some in the audience began shouting down the board, with one person hollering that the board members were “child abusers,” and “acting just like Nazis.”

“It’s an atmosphere that a lot of people don’t want to participate in,” Fitzgerald said.

Mark Fraser, who served three terms on the council in the latter half of the 1990s followed by two terms as mayor, believes getting involved in lower levels of local government is a good preparation to run for local elective office. Before going on the City Council, Fraser served on the Laconia Planning Board.

That kind of experience gives people a good education in what city government is about so that if they run for mayor or council they will have a better understanding of the job — both in terms of its opportunities, challenges, and limitations.

Fraser said he always took the criticism associated with the job in stride.

He recalled his father, Leo Fraser, who served many years in the Legislature — both in the House and Senate — saying, “Every time you vote you lose a friend.”

For Peter Brunette, who was Fraser’s mayoral opponent in 2001, the current apathy about running and serving in local public office is generational.

Brunette, who was born in 1957, observed, “We got a good civics education when we were in school. There was a duty in being a citizen."

He said that as social norms have changed so have the standards of behavior of public officials.

“Society has seriously lowered the bar on what is acceptable behavior,” he said.

Judie Reever, who served on the Laconia School Board for 21 years — the longest tenure in recent memory — said those who serve need to be open-minded, curious, and thoughtful.

“I had to listen and listen hard,” she said. “It didn’t come easily. But I liked it.”

For Brunette, what needs to change is for more people to look beyond their own interests and look to the community’s interests.

“If you focus on your rights and not your obligations you are not going to have thoughtful responses to the issues,” he said.