pavomag.com

are we handcuffed to an "insider" mayoral candidate when we vote on Tuesday? 

The reason I'm asking is that while recording the podcast on Wednesday night, the general sense I got from our guest panelists was that City Council would shut down and refuse to work with the mayor if it turned out to be Patrick Cooper, Scott Douglas or Emory Anthony.  My first reaction to this is, did we elect children into office?  Do we have a city council that is so wrapped up in its own agenda that they won't play ball?  Well, history may paint a more clear picture of this.  We can certainly all remember some examples...

But moving forward, are we really that locked in to those folks who have already served term after term in the city and county, just waiting their turn for the hotseat?  It seems that in order to really move forward, to me at least, that we need fresh eyes and ears in that office.  All of them, in fact.  We had our chance just recently to vote in new blood to the council.  Some of our districts did and some them just didn't.  And maybe those districts who didn't overturn are quite satisfied with the jobs their councilpersons are doing.  But when you hear so many complaints about the municipal government, you'd expect that more change would be coming on these election days. 

So maybe we're just a little gunshy?  Testing tepid waters over and over?

Without divulging too much of my own opinion, I will say that my favorite candidates in this election were all "outsiders".  That puts me in quite a bind, because I don't want to vote in a lame-duck mayor, even if it is just for two years. 

So my question is -What do you think?  Is it a question of who the best mayoral candidate is or do we really have to think about whether or not the council will work with them? 

Comments