I was reading the Carbondale Times and got to the second half of the mayor forum article on page 8. There are 3 ads on that page, the top one is boring, but the next two down the page are kind of interesting because of the placement. On top there is an ad for Lance Jack for City Council and below there is an ad for Shawnee Trails for their new line of Mountain Khakis. When I see a political ad and right below there is shot of the rear end of a pretty young lady, I have to ask if the Carbondale Times is making a political statement?
I think that Lance has been a pretty poor city council member and under normal circumstances, I wouldn't vote for him. I like that is somewhat pro-business, but his ideas of how to do it or any real ideas or drive to do anything seems to be missing.
Steven Haynes has been pretty average as a council member, he seem to run from every difficult issue. His one issue seems to be the Eurma Hayes center (his mother used to run it?) and is somewhat pro-business. I don't see any ideas or drive here.
Then we have Liz Lewin who has never been anything beyond an unprepared and incompetent in my eyes. I have never dealt with Liz where she hasn't lied directly and with purpose to me. If you dig into this at all, you will find that the scuttlebutt is that Liz cut a wide swath of lies, incompetence and deception in her time as District 95. The best her supporters in District 95 have to say is, "we have had worse." I sure am not going to vote for a her and in a race of weak and unproven candidates, she is the one to avoid based on her lack of ethics IMHO.
I sure wish that Jessica Davis was running for city council instead of mayor.
I think that Mary Pohlmann is smart and worthy of our votes. I wish there were a few more like her in this field.
Joe Moore is 20 and seems lightweight because of his age, like Jessica Davis needs to serve in a smaller job to prove himself.
Paulette "Wills" Sherwood seems like a one trick pony in support of the Northeast. Don't know her, and I have just read one article about her. If we were electing council members to represent a region of the city, instead of the whole city, I think she would be a good choice for the NE. But we aren't.
Luanne J. Brown is invisible to me. At some point Dave wrote that she will have a blog sometime, but I can't find it. Anyone know her story? Google shows nothing on her.
It is an interesting field for a town already experiencing white flight out of its elementary school district. I guess that we could elect 3 black candidates who's platforms are support of Eurma Hayes center and the rest of the Northeast, over any other issue. I guess Mary Pohlmann's addition to the council would get us a no smoking law fairly quickly, which is also interesting.
It wouldn't surprise me if we ended up with our two current council members and Mary Pohlmann. I would be happier with Mary Pohlmann, Jessica Davis and Sheila Simon though.
Anyone have a roses or rocks to throw on this election? Are we just getting rid of Joe in the primary because he is young and the students don't vote, then zero in on facts after that?
5 comments:
Is there anyone you won't throw under the bus? Geez, have a heart.
I think this is a difference between this comment writer and me. He may wonder about my heart, I have to wonder about his soul. Why does Carbondale accept such tremendous mediocrity? How long do you get to be city council without having an idea to move the city forward? How many votes do you get to duck? There is a beauty to a government official who moves with purpose and effectively moves forward his office.
When we examine one issue candidates, it might be instructive to look at the Park District and their results. The golfers taking it over a few years back and building a golf course, even though the people voted it down. The good news is the golfers have yet another local and underused golf course, but bad news is the voters of Carbondale are stuck with a dead chicken and get to pickup the check. Now apply these ideas to the city council. Sometime I need to get the names of the Park District officials who voted for Hickory Ridge and ask them if they still think it was a good decision.
I did like how the Nightlife published the ads in almost the same order, it was Lance's ad, then Sheila's ad, then Shawnee Trail's ad. Maybe Rick asked to be placed in the political area so more people looked at his ad? I was just in Shawnee Trail's the other day, I like his North Face hiking/running shoes and I'm thinking about getting a new pair of Teva's or the like, Summer is near.
I guess this is one of the problems when you have no citizens who are between 30 and 50 who aren't professors and doctors (who are a group shouldn't be in government, but more about that later), the people running for office don't have the credentials like they do in places with industry.
Liz Lewin all but destroyed district 95, with a sugar coating of "look at all the great crap I did". Sure there are some nice new buildings standing, but with a school board as scary as the one in place, and a shoddy district plan previously ran by the person mentioned above, I'd probably resign mid-year(like the current super, Daum) too.
So far only Sheila Simon and Joe Moore have shown enough interest in me to send me any campaign literature or even an email. I don't have a home phone so maybe I escaped the Davis robocalls. I'm on both the Cole and Simon email lists and have only gotten one email from Simon a week ago, nothing from Cole.
I'm deeply offended if I don't get political junk mail and phone calls. :) I'm old fashioned and don't really care if I get contacted by a candidate, I just want them to do good work.
I think the argument about voting for candidates who contact us directly, leads us to having the most well funded candidate, candidates who are working for political packs (or have the packs working for them, your choice) and candidates from a political party having a huge advantage. It isn't only raw cash, it is also how much labor your "supportive organization" provides to you for free.
It is reasonable to think that an unknown candidate who works hardest during the election, might well be the most energetic and provide the best service to the community. I don't think that this applies to candidates who have already served. We know our incumbents and what they might do, there are few surprises.
Is that what we want, marketing over results? Not for me thank you very much. Give me the candidate who will work the hardest for the community, provide the best ideas and results.
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