Commentary: Local elections matter too!

Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith" and "Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America." Visit his Web site for more information.

If you spend some time talking to anyone residing in the Beltway, all you will hear is what moves need to be made by the Republicans and Democrats now because "the mid-terms are around the corner." Uh, it's a year from now!

And as usual, voters are already wondering what is going to happen, even though there won’t be a single ballot cast for a year.

I read a story this week that stated that President Barack Obama's campaign team, Organizing for America, is already putting people in place and taking ideas for their game plan in 2012. In politics this is called shrewd and prudent thinking. Frankly, it's nonsense.

A year ago at this time there was tremendous excitement about the presidential election. Folks were geeked for the battle between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain. That's always the case for a national election. But truth be told, our concerns should really be about what's happening on the local and state level.

On Tuesday, we will see important races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and mayoral elections in Houston, Atlanta, New York and other places. Races to fill city council, state legislature and all kinds of other positions will be held and we all should be focused on these races.

Let's just be honest: The national races are the sexiest campaigns of them all. But when it comes to how your life will be most impacted, it's what happens on the local level.

When it comes to raising fees, property, sales and income taxes, you'll see more of that on the local and state level, rather the national level.

It's nice to go back and forth in determining how many seats the Democrats may lose in the November 2010 election but who controls the state legislature matters because we are coming up on the 2010 Census and with that, they'll be looking at redistricting. And that will be in place for 10 years.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan can give 1,000 speeches about the need for quality schools but the local school board is where the action is when it comes to educating our children.

We spend a lot of time talking about the U.S. Supreme Court but the real battleground in our criminal justice system is in the state courts. If you're concerned with individuals who may not be guilty spending time on death row, that's happening on the state level and not the federal level.

The point is simple: We are most affected by what is done in the city council, commissioner’s court, the sheriff's office and by local and state judges. Yet down-ballot races are the most ignored. Just a few weeks ago, Memphis held a special election for mayor and turnout was only 20 percent.

That's it. Twenty lousy percent.

So if you're gearing up for the 2010 mid-term elections, put that on the back burner and find out when the next local election is. If you don't, you may miss your life being turned upside down because your eyes are on Washington, D.C. and not down the street.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland S. Martin.