Fear of Finding Out (FOFO). Business analysts use it to identify problems in how organizations operate.

Over time, organizations develop a series of procedures, customs and myths to help them function. Group think discourages anyone from questioning the process. Then someone asks, are our procedures leading to results in line with our values? FOFO takes over. The group’s leaders don’t want those questions asked. Those in charge suffer from Fear of Finding Out.

By law, Arizona’s local elections are non-partisan. In practice, they have become highly partisan. Two candidates for Town Council are backed by the town’s Republican bureaucracy. By what process did the town Republican bureaucracy come to support these candidates?

Hanna Toth is young and inexperienced. She promotes her anger and lack of experience as virtues. She claims “transparency,” but scrubbed her social media before filing to be a candidate. Gone from social media are her postings supporting Q-ANON and other fact-challenged conspiracies. Didn’t the local Republican bureaucracy ask about that, or was it a Fear of Finding Out?

Allen Skillicorn is a disgraced Illinois legislator who has lived in Fountain Hills for less than 18 months. He was found guilty of casting fake votes on bills before the Illinois House of Representatives. He was defeated for re-election, resigned before his term ended, and came to Fountain Hills in 2021. Didn’t the local Republican bureaucracy ask about his sordid past? Was it a Fear of Finding Out process?

Do we need FOFO candidates on Town Council? Neither Toth nor Skillicorn have any experience with town matters. Neither seem to have any clue how the town works. They are supported candidates because a local political bureaucracy suffered from Fear of Finding Out.