From the Editor: Election excitement? Not so much

What if they gave an election, and nobody came?
The expression is trite, and hyperbole besides. As sure as red beans and rice on Monday, hundreds of thousands of Louisiana people will trudge to their polling places on Saturday. Many, of course, pre-trudged during the early voting period.
This vote should be the highlight of our electoral calendar. We are Louisiana folk, and we either treasure our governors or treasure the fact that we despise them.
Senator, congressman, ambassador, cabinet member — that stuff is all well and good. But every worthy Louisiana politician’s goal is to sit in the seat in which Huey, Earl and Edwin once parked their gubernatorial talents. And voters usually respond in proportion to the candidates’ lust to set up shop on the Capitol’s fourth floor.
So it’s strange to think about this: The expected turnout for Saturday’s primary election, with the governor’s race at the top of the ticket, is expected to be about the same, maybe a little lower, than in 2011. The early voting totals tend to support the prediction.
In 2011, Gov. Bobby Jindal was running for re-election, and Jindal was running for president only part-time back then. His top opponent, Democrat Tara Hollis, drew 18 percent of the primary vote, and Jindal drew 66 percent to win outright in the primary. The race was, in short, a snoozer.
This time, the seat will be open, because Jindal can’t run for a third consecutive term. Four major candidates, with name recognition ranging from moderately famous to practically infamous, have been slugging it out in televised debates. And yet the turnout is expected to be no more than was the case during what may have been the dullest governor election in Louisiana history.
Why do you think that is?
—On top of the state and local races, the presidential campaign might be wearing us out. The Republicans in particular have already been slapping each other around for at least three months, and the Iowa caucuses are still more than two months away. Then, on the Democratic side, Vice President Joe Biden played “will he or won’t he?” for a month or so. And Hillary Clinton went before the Benghazi committee for a full day.
They could be sucking all the oxygen out of the room.
—In St. Mary, the races seem to lack compelling issues. Fixing some roads, making some changes in property taxes, getting the east end and west end to work together — that’s about it. At least here, there’s not much pull at the bottom of the ticket.
—We may be turned off by what has become an embarrassingly negative governor campaign. The apparent front-runner, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, has been limiting his debate appearances and contact with the media to avoid embarrassing questions about his dealings with the late D.C. Madam. His opponents bring up the subject every chance they get.
Whatever the reason, we should rise above our ennui and misgivings to make our way to the polls Saturday.
I started this column with something trite. Here’s some more: People have stormed beaches and smothered hand grenades with their bodies to protect our right to vote, so we really should do our part.
The trouble with trite stuff is that people hear it so much that they stop listening. OK.
Try this: The Louisiana budget, which used to be just an ugly mess, has gone straight to obscene. Somehow, we’ve managed to construct a system that can’t cover our state spending when times are good and oil prices are high. Who knows what will happen if $40 oil hangs around for a while?
The next governor and the legislators we elect Saturday will be the ones responsible for fixing that system.
Look lower on the ballot, and you’ll see a race for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s District 3.
Right now, the one truly bipartisan consensus in the whole country — that public schools need fixing, and harsh measures will be required — has come unraveled. On one side are the reformers, who believe schools must be improved both for the sake of the students and to maintain a viable workforce. The reformers generally believe in Common Core, charter schools, and relaxed tenure and work rules for teachers.
They’re generally opposed by people who believe there’s too much testing and not enough teaching, people who believe teachers need tenure protection and fear that charters will drain money away from traditional public schools.
The District 3 BESE race pits incumbent Lottie Beebe, who generally stands up for teachers and traditional public schools, and Sandra Holloway, who has the endorsement of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. You don’t get the LABI endorsement by opposing reform measures aimed at improving the workforce.
The trite thing people say about voting is that they stay home because they don’t feel they’ll make an impact.
But this time around, somebody’s going to make a difference. It might be you.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review. Reach him at bdecker@daily-review.com.