Here's my .02: I grew up in downstate Illinois, where politicians followed the lead of their Chicago brethren. These guys ran their own network, but they still had to get elected in the first place and to do that they always made sure that things got taken care of for the general public. You could always bet on the snow being cleared (immediately), the schools getting funded, the parks having nice pools and skating rinks and the public offices being efficiently run. If you had a problem with anything, you called your alderman/councilman and complained until it was made right. It was all about constituent services, and as long as everything ran smoothly, no one said anything about the family members who got the snow removal contracts or the fact that the councilman's wife was the highest paid admin at the Overseer of the Poor's office.
Here, it seems to me, that if you are not in the immediate circle, they don't even pretend to serve your needs. You can get elected just with your circle (as we saw in our last Commission race) and so you don't need a broader constituency. It's like the county was so small, for so long, that they just do business the way they always did when it was all kinfolk and ignore everybody else. When you ask your commissioner about something, you get a vague answer from their assistants, and no follow up. I always feel like I am being pesky when I ask them what happened to a certain initiative or project.
Shallowsnole, you joke that you got your road paved, but you have something else - a County job. That's no small feat, they are the only steady employer around here with full benefits. Maybe that's why things are still the way they are, there is no one else with any power that they have to answer to.