Greg Ballard (R) has not been our worst Mayor, not by a long shot. He lost me over his choice of Public Safety Director (fire Frank Straub!) and he hasn't been stellar about armed citizens. We could do better but we've had much worse.
Melina Kennedy wants the job, wants it so badly she seems to have forgotten she's not running for Supreme Leader or Empress. So far, she's promised to "fix schools" (run by the School Board: not under the Mayor's control), "tighten up on guns" (preempted by state law: not under the Mayor's control) and "create jobs" (other than some appointments and minor new positions, not under the Mayor's control).
And I thought Ballard was a little inexperienced when he got the job? Kennedy's been a Deputy Mayor and she still doesn't understand what the Mayor can and cannot do!
If free elections mean we get the government we deserve, I can only conclude we have been very, very bad the past four years.
Update: check out the Marion County Voter Information Portal! --At least you can figure out who to vote against. (Bill Levin gets the Roseholme endorsement for City Council)
All I can say is, good luck!
ReplyDeleteI suggest that it's less that Kennedy doesn't understand what the mayor can and can't do and more hoping that the VOTERS don't understand it.
ReplyDeleteBeing a politician is like being a department store Santa Claus with the voters as a hoarde of children: they really believe that you'll bring them whatever they ask for.
Re: "Getting the government we deserve."
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that we have to choose between the people that want the job badly enough to actively pursue it. Wanting the job that badly is usually the first sign that someone is... probably not the best choice for it.
The worst thing about Kennedy is that she's just Bart Peterson redux. If we assume that the people who voted for Ballard were actually voting against Peterson, then they should be equally as wary about voting for his protege.
ReplyDeleteEven given Straub, I would rather have Ballard. Ballard and Straub are just as constrained by the new preemption law as Kennedy and her PSD would be. And Ballard, short of some truly head-scratching moves (the latest of which being the LiteBox debacle -- which appears to have disappeared from the news, so maybe it wasn't really the debacle the Star was hoping for), has actually been a net positive as far as I can tell.
Dumping Ballard to step back to a Peterson-associated flunky like Kennedy is not progress. But it is not surprising that the Gannett Star has endorsed her, even over an opposite page full of letters to to the contrary. Even the city workers unions seem to prefer him to Ms. "I'll run for anything even if I don't have any experience" Kennedy.
On the other hand, I don't think the Mayor matters. The Council is probably going to flip Democrat again, and IMO that's more critical than whether or not we have a D or an R (or even an L, which is entirely unlikely, but still) in the Mayor's chair.
In the smallish town (25K)I used to live in the local wandering crazy guy (y'know, wanders around downtown muttering to himself) runs for mayor every time. I voted for him every time too. I figured the voices in his head couldn't do any worse than the incumbent had done. Every time he got something like 15% of the vote. Seems this year the sitting mayor, who has held the post for eighteen years, has finally decided to retire. I almost want to move back there just so I can vote for the voices again.
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