Elected Officials Needn’t Resemble Their Constituents

Do I detect blushes on the faces of your UCI professor and student who co-wrote “How Representative Are Our Local Elected Officials? Not Very” (Commentary, May 31)?

The article states that “to restore confidence in government, the quality of representation must be enhanced--meaning the election of individuals who better resemble the communities.” John Adams is cited, calling for representatives who “think, feel, reason and act” like their constituents. Thomas Paine, too, is called upon to say our representatives must never “form to themselves an interest separate from the electors.”

From here your authors leap to an assertion that Orange County representatives are not representative at all. They want our elected officials to look like the voters. This is an obviously silly expectation and not at all what Adams and Paine were talking about.

The death knell to their position is found in a later admission that Orange County’s elected representatives have attitudes generally congruent with those of their constituents, but with exceptions. The exceptions cited are child care and development.

Your authors state that “more than 10% of the public believed child care is the most important social problem facing the country.” Although that could be a very small figure, I, too, as a father of four, uphold a similar belief. However, I don’t want parenting provided by the government. Instead, let’s encourage parents.

And regarding development, your authors say that 40% of the public think city regulations are not strict enough to control growth and that only 25% of their representatives share this view. That’s only a 15% shift, and let’s face it, controlled growth is not the No. 1 issue in this country.

After reading the balance of the article, it appeared to me that your authors did a fine job but came to the wrong conclusion. The facts are clear: Our elected representatives, although they may not “look exactly like” their constituents, are clearly representative of the communities. Thus, the Adams and Paine tests have been met. Lastly, your authors’ call to action to oust the incumbents is only too consistent with The Times’ obvious agenda to force liberal representatives on a conservative county.

PATRICK L. HANRAHAN, Yorba Linda