Up for Grabs

First off, I must admit to being somewhat surprised at the number of candidates who chose to throw their respective hats into the Tribal Council election ring this year. There were 13 in all, including a couple of past Council members, a few long-time community members with some name recognition, and individuals who at one point were members of the handful of publicized coalitions but appear to be going it alone. Lastly, there were those whose aspirations are either very recent or very private, meaning the longshots.
After being in the community on and off for little more than a decade, there are very few people who have chosen to run that I haven't heard of. That has changed quite a bit. When I worked at the "Smoke Signals" there were tons of back issues at my fingertips, especially the annual Candidates' Statements issue. Over time I became familiar with the elections of the past, and they never really seemed to have reached the present level until about 2000 or so, when if memory serves correctly, a grand total of 23 people ran for Council. Most years, there were always a handful of people who I had never heard of, and one run once or twice before disappearing.
The number of people running has dwindled in recent years chiefly, I suspect, because of the precedents set with the ABC/PPP and WIF group efforts. Since 2004, I can't really say that anybody has gotten elected without drawing upon the constituencies of one of those two groups. This year there is even another group that is trying what is probably the most formalized effort to be attempted yet. All of which makes this year so darn interesting. There appear to be a number of "independents" in 2008, that is candidates who come in not having made any sort of public allegiance to any one camp, which makes me wonder if the whole group/slate concept is dying out or a number of would-be Council members are in for a rude awakening. As always, time gets to tell us.
What I am really curious to see if we will witness an issue-driven election season or a personality driven one. Will one group continue their trend of dominating the elections or are the membership really ready to open a new if unclear chapter in recent history, and in turn go not with the old guard? I can't wait to see. Personally, I'd rather see an uncertain but potentially positive direction rather than a definite negative one.