Lee Cataluna: Time to plan for next election already here

It’s not too soon to be thinking about the next election, even if everyone’s sick of it all right now.

Many local political players have been thinking about 2020, and even beyond, since before the 2018 general election, plotting their strategy and their career trajectory. Voters have to think ahead and strategize, too.

If we don’t want to end up in two years where we ended up this time, we have to start looking for leaders ASAP. That means encouraging people who have the right skills, aptitude and related experience. That means being honest with wannabes or has-beens who just don’t.

Some in elected office rely on being in elected office as their sole source of employment. They don’t have a career outside of politics. They are professional low-level office holders who jump between the Legislature and the City Council every time they hit a term limit. Though it’s important for a politician to understand how politics works, when it’s all a person has ever done or could ever do, it becomes their means of supporting their family, their lifestyle and their ego. That’s not good.

A leader is someone who can articulate a vision. The vision is important but so is being articulate. Words are the way we describe problems or build solutions. They’re not everything, but they support, focus, clarify and elevate a leader’s plan to make things better.

A leader is someone who understands that some good decisions might make people unhappy. A good leader makes hard decisions and is able to clearly and honestly explain why. A good leader needs to accept that doing their job properly could mean they might not get re-elected.

Imagine a leader who makes people willing to give up their secure, well-paying private-sector jobs and enter public serv­ice for a while because it seems like a noble thing and a worthwhile challenge, not a soul-sucking Plan B to pay the rent for a couple of years while waiting for a better gig.

Someone who has a sense of humor, especially about themselves. Of course, a leader needs to be serious and to take the responsibility seriously, but it would be such a welcome relief to have someone in elected office who can take a joke or crack a joke at their own expense.

A leader sincerely understands the frustration people have about how slow and unresponsive government can be and how there seems to be a different set of rules for people who have money or connections.

And wouldn’t it be nice to have a leader who can inspire? Someone who isn’t just describing a process of shoveling sand against the tide, but a person who makes you feel like tomorrow is definitely going to be better than today and that you have a part in making that so. Is that something we don’t get to have anymore? Is that hoping for too much?

Sometimes it seems as though the people who would make the best leaders are the least likely to run for office, like the reluctant hero of, well, every heroic movie in the past several decades. They do not seek leadership. They are drafted into it. Leadership is thrust upon them. Keep an eye out. They’re out there. They might not know it yet. They might need some encouragement.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.