Joining the Political Parade

Consider what a guy named Andrew Ferguson wrote several years ago.

“Journalism is a character defect. I think most non-journalists would agree with this. It is life lived at a safe remove: standing off to one side of the parade as it passes, noting its flaws, offering glib and unworkable suggestions for its improvement. Every journalist must know that this is not, really, how a serious-minded person would choose to spend his days. Serious-minded people do things; a journalist chatters about the things serious-minded people do, and so, not coincidentally, avoids having to do them himself. A significant body of research indicates that non-journalists find us insufferable, perhaps for this reason.”

Yep. I guess that about covers it.

Maybe that's why it's so curious to me, the glib/removed, when one of us breaks from the herd and actually runs for public office.

Granted, it's been four years since Liz Mathis sat behind an anchor desk delivering the day's news, which she did for many years at KCRG-TV9 and KWWL. Very well, from what I gather. She left TV before I arrived. Since then, she's built a career advocating for child welfare and juvenile justice at Four Oaks, among other professional pursuits.

Now, Mathis is running to fill the vacant, hotly-contested state Senate District 18 seat in a special election Nov. 8. Clearly, she's joined the parade.

And yet, I bet she's covered state government. I know I've covered state government. And one reason I know is that I've become keenly skeptical of its ability to, basically, find its golden dome with both hands. If I ran for the Legislature, which I would never, ever do, I'm afraid my slogan would be “Disillusioned? You don't know the half of it.” Not catchy.

“A lot of people have said you must be crazy,” Mathis said this past week. But while working at the Statehouse, lobbying on behalf of Four Oaks, she said she's actually seen the system work. “I see it differently. I'm looking at the issues more than I'm looking at the divisions.”

Yeah, fine, I guess it works sometimes. But does the TV-to-politics thing work?

Not always. Connie McBurney was central Iowa's best-known and most watched weathercaster when I was growing up. But she couldn't knock off U.S. Rep. Greg Ganske in 1996. (If you grew up hearing 'Connie said it would be like this,' check out this video.)

Locally, it's a mixed bag. Former KGAN-TV farm reporter Wade Wagner was elected parks commissioner in Cedar Rapids. But KGAN's Iowa Traveler, Cary J. Hahn, lost his bid to be a Linn County supervisor. Maybe sharp readers can think of others.

Iowa Republican Central Committee member Bill Schickel was a TV anchor and reporter at KIMT-TV when he was elected mayor of Mason City and later to the Legislature. He presided Thursday over the district convention to pick Mathis' opponent, Cindy Golding.

“The media is a communications business. And it provides a platform,” Schickel said, quickly adding that, without real depth on issues, tube time will only take you so far.

It'll be fascinating to watch this race play out. From a safe remove.