We’ve all heard the phrase before – so-and-so couldn’t get elected dogcatcher. I have two questions, though:
1) When and where did this phrase originate?
2) Has there ever, ever been a contested election for dogcatcher anywhere?
I really hope the answer to number two is yes.
Til 2007, we had this as an elected office. As late as 2002 there was a contested election for it in the Democratic primary in Jefferson County (Beaumont).
… animal control is an elected office in some jurisdictions.
… and I actually don’t know if it’s elected or not, but I always enjoyed hearing about the North Shore Mosquito Abatement trustees in Cook County, Illinois.
I mean, in reality, mosquito abatement is incredibly important. But I just can’t bring myself to imagine calling someone a North Shore Mosquito Abatement trustee. Or, better yet, the President of the North Shore Mosquito Abatement Board.
But sorry, no dogcatcher.
…we need a Constitutional Amendment to end the corrupt practice of dogcatcher appointment.
Halberstam, in The Best and the Brightest, describes Vice President Johnson’s reaction to his first meeting with President Kennedy’s cabinet:
I’m of the opinion that positions like animal control officer and sheriff should not be elected. I’m perfectly fine with electing DAs and AGs, but when it comes to other types of law enforcement, elections are not the way to go. Animal control is serious business, not only with pets but in areas with large wild animals (gators, bears, cougars, coyotes), and I’d rather have someone with a great deal of experience in dealing with such animals rather than some elected hack.
I’m also not keen on the idea of electing sheriffs. Now I know that there are requirements for actual law enforcement experience, but it has been my experience that electing sheriffs only leads to trouble. Look at Jim Traficant and Phil Chance (Mahoning Co. sheriff who went down in a big organized crime probe in the 90s).
http://listserv.linguistlist.o…
Reminds me of a parody I did once on a college radio show. I played Bob Stevens, the GOP dogcatcher candidate who promised to round up all stray animals and kill them. I portrayed my opponent, who was campaigning on a slight increase in the animal shelter budget, as a tax and spend liberal who put the welfare of stray pets above hard working Americans.
Duxbury, VT has the elected position of dogcatcher. Zeb Towne is listed with the note that his position expires in 2009 so there may be an election for dogcatcher this year.
“couldn’t get elected third grade milk monitor.”
As in this quote from would be Ohio governor Kasich
Do you have any idea what a CRUCIAL constituency teachers represent in this state? Just the RETIREES are enough to ensure that … well…
see above.
Especially in the original 13 colonies and the states carved out of their original claims to lands in the Northwest Territory and the Southeast. Since Virgina more or less claimed the entire continent, most of the states east of the Mississippi simply grafted the English county structure onto their new jurisdictions.
Basing government structures largely along lines of English counties, there were lots of elected positions which are now generally appointed patronage or civil service posts. Magistrates were elected for local courts (with law degrees not being a requirement) and sheriffs whose positions largely devoted to collecting revenue instead of law enforcement.
West Virginia being carved out of Virginia during the Civil War, we simply kept the old English system inherited through Virgina. When I was a kid in the late-60s and early-70s, we had countywide (and districts within the county) elections for dogcatcher and county surveyor and the like along with the ones for magistrate, sheriff, and the like.
Inertia and the push for popular sovereignty (as well as the later populist and progressive movements push for maintaining and expanding the number of offices open to election) led to this structure surviving long into the 20th century.
Post-WWII local governments began reorganizing to centralize executive power in elected county commissions but the process was slow and went by fits and starts.
In Nicholas County (WV), dogcatcher became a civil service position in the early 70s. However, several offices (like county surveyor) remained elected until the late-80s.
In the first ballot I cast (1984), there were several of these posts still on the ballot… most of which had no one running for them. I wrote in my own name for county surveyor. I lost to some guy who got three write-in votes, ending my political career in its infancy.
In the late 80s, WV counties did another series of reorganizations and eliminated these posts. But I have seen these positions still on the ballot in southern states like Georgia and Florida as late as 1998. Might still be there for all I know.
in order to get statewide campaign experience?
The term came from a local Flordia Minister who was describing the Christian Coalition in 1980 to Newsweek magazine.
He said “Were going to run for everything from Dogcatcher to Senator”
This can be found on page 71 of Janice Irvine’s book “Let’s talk about sex”