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Booksellers Serving as Elected Officials: A Natural Fit
- By Liz Button
Printer-friendly versionIndie booksellers have a long history of taking their civic involvement beyond the walls of their bookstores to work with schools, spearhead Local First movements, partner with other organizations for the betterment of their communities, and even run for political office. Five ABA members who currently serve as elected officials in cities and towns from New England to California told Bookselling This Week that their business experience and community relationships have made them well-suited for elected office, and they encouraged other booksellers to consider running for positions in local government.
In Exeter, New Hampshire, Water Street Bookstore owner Dan Chartrand recently began his second three-year term on the Board of Selectmen, the governing body of the town of 14,000.
Chartrand, a former ABA Board member, founded Water Street in 1991. In 2012, fellow members of the town’s Budget Recommendations Committee exhorted him to run for the office of selectman.
“My first reaction was no,” said Chartrand. “Then 24 hours later, I thought about the issues that were in front of the town government and how they impacted my business and the economic development of the community. And then I said, ‘Well, actually yes, I am going to run!’”
Chartrand ended up winning his first race with a near-supermajority and in March 2015 ran unopposed for a second term. Since then, his signature issues as a selectman have included improving the town’s infrastructure; encouraging appropriate development that does not come at the expense of the town’s historic character; regionalizing services; and breaking down the “town and gown” divide between locals and Philips Exeter Academy. He has also served on the town’s Economic Development Commission, with a focus on reinvesting in the downtown area and refurbishing the town’s sidewalks and curbs.
The skills of a bookseller are almost completely transferable to running for and holding political office, according to Chartrand, in part because a bookseller’s job builds community around the written word and intellectual property.
“I think in some ways booksellers are uniquely suited to working in government as elected officials,” said Chartrand. “It makes sense that a lot of booksellers have done it. They’ve always gone about bringing great progressive change to the communities they live in.
“Government is literally what we all agree to do together with our tax dollars,” he added. “The more you can tie government to community development, the better it runs, and the more confident people are that government is working.”
In April, Becky Anderson, the co-owner of three Anderson’s Bookshop locations, a gift shop, and book fair company in Illinois, was elected to the Naperville City Council. The former ABA president agrees that booksellers, as well as other small business owners, bring an invaluable perspective to local government.
Anderson, whose past civic work includes six years as chair of Naperville’s Special Events and Cultural Amenities Commission and founder of the Local First group IndieBound Naperville, said that in addition to expertise on matters like budgets, vendors, bidding, and insurance, booksellers can bring other skills to the table that aren’t just related to business acumen.
“Booksellers possess a quality of fairness and open-mindedness, when you think about all the demographics that live within any particular city or town. There are the books that we sell and the ideas we sell within these books, but there are also all the people we sell these books to: they come from all walks of life,” Anderson said. “I think that, as a group, our mindset is that we’re fair. We look at the injustices.”
Back east, in Bangor, Maine, Gibran Graham, the marketing manager at Briar Patch Books, is serving his first three-year term as a city councilor. Graham, who was elected in 2013, is also co-owner of the art and event space COESPACE and an event organizer for Bangor’s BangPop! ComicCon. As a councilor, he supported this year’s Artober event, the city’s first month-long arts celebration.
Graham said that booksellers’ responsibility to expose people to a broad and diverse selection of authors’ voices mirrors what motivated him to run for office in the first place: making sure all community members’ voices are being heard in government.
“You’re a public servant, basically. You have a day job that already puts you in front of the public, so it’s a double-edged sword,” said Graham. “It makes you more available than some other councilors or selectmen in your city, which can be good, because sometimes it can be hard for people to get in front of their representative. But it is also challenging because if you’re a bookseller, you need to be doing your job, you need to be helping people, you’ve got tasks to get done, and it can detract from that ability.”
Graham said that sometimes customers will come into the store with the sole intention of browsing, but upon recognizing him, they’ll take the opportunity to bring up town issues. Graham said it’s his background in customer service that keeps him on track in what can become delicate situations.
“It’s not so much about picking your battles; it’s about picking and choosing the right times for conversations,” he said. “So you really have to figure out, Can I engage this person right now? Are there are other people in the store? Can I talk to them about this, or do I need to use this opportunity to set up an appointment for later?”
In Three Rivers, Michigan, Thomas Lowry, the owner and founder of Lowry’s Books, who was elected to his eighth two-year term as the city’s mayor in 2013, will be running again uncontested this November.
Lowry traces his career in local government back to 1993, when he opened Lowry’s Books and started attending City Commission meetings in order to quickly learn more about the town. He was eventually appointed to join the commission when a position opened up between elections. He later won the right to hold onto the seat in a special election. Lowry’s first term as mayor began in 1995, after a contingent of community supporters convinced him to run.
“I believe everyone should give back to their community in whatever way they are comfortable with,” said Lowry. “This is a way I feel I give back.”
Though he sometimes feels as if he’s playing catch-up at the store when he needs to take time to attend to city issues, Lowry said that his more pressing duties as steward of the town take precedent over bookstore matters. There’s enjoyment for him in both jobs, however, and he said that being a bookseller and a small business owner make him a better public official.
“I have experience managing people, managing inventory, managing cash flow; I have to deal with a certain amount of risk or loss,” said Lowry. “I would really encourage other booksellers to try it. It’s a way we can all give back, and the positives far outweigh the negatives.”
In Glendora, California, Judy Nelson, the owner of Mrs. Nelson’s Book Fair Company, was elected to Glendora’s City Council in 2011 and served as the city’s mayor in 2014. She was re-elected to the council for a second term in 2015.
As a small business owner, Nelson, who also founded Mrs. Nelson’s Library Services and the now-closed Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop, said she had always been interested in government regulation of business. She uses her time on the council to advocate for her towns’ business sector on issues such as the minimum wage and the state’s decision to implement a one-size-fits-all sales tax.
“California is one of the more progressive states, and our state legislature is very proud of what they consider to be leading other states in regulation,” said Nelson, “so we have an enormous burden that businesses carry regarding implementing minimum standards that are higher than some of us can afford.”
One such example is the Affordable Care Act, which was implemented more strongly in California than nationwide, Nelson said. Now, in her unique position as both a business owner and a city council member, Nelson said she has the opportunity, the motivation, and the necessary expertise to get citizens’ voices heard on these issues.