On the Line

Who's Fishing for My Vote?


While driving back home from my local polling place today it occured to me that I was more informed about the candidates than in years past. Today was a Republican primary for county commissioners, clerks, a sheriff and two congressmen. A pretty full slate that would likely draw good voter turnout.

It also dawned on me that despite the fact that all of the candidates vying to be elected have pretty good web pages with details about their missions and backgrounds, they were kinda sparse in the personal and lifestyle department. Sure, they all mentioned family, and there were some requisite mentions about "caring for the environment," I was hoping that someone running for office here in seaside Martin County, Florida would have said:  "In my spare time I go fishing." Or, even boating or diving. Something. Even a candidate running for Congress, whose son owns a local fishing rod manufacturing company, did not list fishing as a favorite activity. But I figure he has to fish, right? I mean, C'mon!

I voted for him, whether he fishes or not. Besides, the alternative was voting for an outsider, a true carpetbagger!

Most voters are looking for someone like-minded right? I want to put a bona fide "salt" in office. Sometimes those photos of the candidate with the kids and wife or husband walking on the beach wearing trendy beachwear seem so damn staged, you know? Especially when they are all pasty white.

My hometown is nuts about recreational fishing, and it is located on the St. Lucie River, which joins the Indian River Lagoon just a two-minute boat ride through an inlet to the Atlantic ocean. Recreational, and to a lesser extent, commerical fishing, pumps big bucks into our economy, as is the case throughout the coastal U.S.  The health of my local waters and fisheries suffer badly at times due to agricultural pollution, and there are always issues regarding suburban growth and its effect on our fishing habitat.

So yeah, I would probably give a candidate more serious consideration if he or she came out and said something like, "My aim as your elected official is to establish a balance between economic growth so long as it does not adversely affect our waterways because it is also my goal to catch plenty of snook, tarpon redfish and trout today, and I want my kids and grandkids to do the same for years to come."

I would wave signs on street corners for a candidate who made that kind of stand.

I just wish someone on today's ballot was really "fishing" for my vote.