What are the Duties and Obligations of an Elected Official?

To me, the duty and obligation of an elected official is to serve the best interests of his or her constituency, especially on the local and state levels.

 

To serve the special interests. In return, their lobbyists will help you win the next election. In the rare event you are not reelected, you'll be rewared with something like a corporate board member position. Always win win.

 

Congressional Oath of Office-

I, Loyal Citizen of the Republic, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

true faith and allegiance to the Constitution

 

If I were an elected official, I would first value my campaign pledges; after all, that should be why I got elected. With respect to things that were not specifically in my campaign, I would defnitiely vote the way my constituents wanted. If it is too close to call, I would do some standard polling to get a feel. If it were still too close to call, I'd go with my best judgement or maybe use my vote as leverage for future legislation.

Our local state representative recently voted against something that I was for and the vast majority of her constituents were for. Even though the measure passed, I emailed her to get her to explain her position. It was a reasonable explanation so I won't hold it against her in future elections, but I still told her she should have gone with the vast majority.

 

this reminds me of bush in his infinite hard headedness, "I'm not going to make decisions based on polls"

 

Giddy, it must have been a crushing blow when your bud Lieberman who claims to only be true to his neocon beliefs went down to defeat.

 

Lie, cheat, steal and receive bribes without getting caught.

 

To remember not to eat corn before taking a dump in the American punchbowl.