Somebody's Gotta Do It
Why Cursing at the News Won't Save the Nation, But Your Name on a Local Ballot Can
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- US$11.99
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“50 percent memoir, 50 percent advice manual, and 100 percent heart.” —The New York Times
Somebody's Gotta Do It is a humorous (and instructive) memoir about a progressive woman who runs for very small-town elected office in a red county—and wins (yay!)—and then realizes the critical importance of the job.
Back in the fall of 2016, before casting her vote for Hillary Clinton, Adrienne Martini, a knitter, a runner, a mom, and a resident of rural Otsego County in snowy upstate New York, knew who her Senators were, wasn’t too sure who her Congressman was, and had only vague inklings about who her state reps were. She’s always thought of politicians as . . . oily. Then she spent election night curled in bed, texting her husband, who was at work, unable to stop shaking. And after the presidential inauguration, she reached out to Dave, a friend of a friend, who was involved in the Otsego County Democratic Party. Maybe she could help out with phone calls or fundraising? But Dave’s idea was: she should run for office. Someone had to do it.
And so, in the year that 26,000 women (up from 920 the year before) contacted Emily’s List about running for offices large and small, Adrienne Martini ran for the District 12 seat on the Otsego County Board. And became one of the 14 delegates who collectively serve one rural American county, overseeing a budget of $130 million. Highway repair? Soil and water conservation? Child safety? Want wifi? Need a coroner?
It turns out, local office matters. A lot.
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Journalist Martini (Hillbilly Gothic) documents her anguish in the wake of the 2016 election and traces her path to becoming a county board member in Upstate New York in this entertaining political memoir. Though Martini quickly discovered that there was a lack of resources for neophytes interested in running for local offices, she attended "candidate school" to learn the rules of campaigning, went door to door to collect the signatures needed to get on the ballot in Otsego County, and eventually won, becoming one of 14 delegates overseeing a budget of $105 million. Through the process, Martini discovered that local politics matter more than national races: "It's not that federal races aren't important. It's that local offices have more control over your services and, sometimes, your life." Offering self-deprecating humor, practical advice (such as packing snacks for long committee meetings), and insights into obscure but important issues (among them flaws in the county coroner system that lead to conflicts of interest and a lack of transparency), Martini elevates her story above the minutiae of county board proceedings. The result is a useful guide for those contemplating the plunge into electoral politics.
