Monday, May 07, 2007

NAC’s Primary Primer: At-large council (D) endorsements.


The year 2007 is shaping up as pivotal for the city of New Albany, and not coincidentally, a primary election comes to us on Tuesday, May 8, 2007. NAC is considering the five contested city council races in the Democratic Party primary and the entertaining three-way Democratic mayor’s race.

The format will be consistent throughout, continuing here with the at-large council race.

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Council (D) At-Large

The New Albanian (NA):
You are asked to pick three of six … but I see only one and a half.

(NA) - Endorsement:
John Gonder truly thinks globally and acts locally, and his ability to grasp larger issues and trends and to apply them to the grassroots level of local affairs is an excellent recommendation to serve on a city where presently, ideas go to die slow and very painful deaths.

(NA) – Endorsement with an asterisk:
Lately I’ve not comprehended incumbent Jack Messer’s council stances, but perhaps these recent inexplicabilities can be chalked up to the vagaries of election year political maneuvering. I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, because during his first three years in office, a stellar progressive voting record and unquestioned leadership on important projects like Scribner Place were vital for progress in this community.

(NA) - The rest of the pack, not endorsed:
Incumbent Donnie Blevins is correct in pointing to the pressures he has experienced as the council’s “swing vote,” but although he has managed to swing the correct way perhaps slightly more than half the time, an apparently non-existent pattern of core political beliefs might have assisted him in more reliable decision-making at other times.

Shirley Baird is to be credited for taking a far higher road than those with whom she is customarily seen keeping company at council meetings, and yet if maintaining a once-a-week posting schedule on a blog is too time-consuming, it’s simply a bad omen for the effort it will require to keep abreast of breaking events while on the council.

Lagging far to the rear are Jim Hollis, a fossilized relic and ex-functionary pushing 80 who has yet to divulge a solitary platform plank, and Vicki Denhart, the cowardly and trognonymous progenitor of the Freedom to Screech smear blog, who has offered numerous platform planks – any of them suitable for her to walk at rapier point, but none useful to the city in general except as components of bilious and vendetta-driven decay management.

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Bluegill (BG):
While I, too, give Jack Messer much credit for early and necessary action in wiping the spittle from the cheeks of anyone of reasonable intelligence who had to face the Council in the past few years and voting for something, at-large election strategy dictates that informed voters cast only one vote in the race. My vote's going to John Gonder.

John has handily demonstrated core principles, an understanding of local redevelopment issues, a well-developed worldview, and a willingness and ability to apply and communicate them in a political sphere in which the lack of the aforementioned is a hallmark.

1 comment:

Christopher D said...

I too really like Mr. Gonder.
It was very refreshing to have an "over the fence" conversation with him last week. He stopped by while I was out doing yard work. He has a good grasp on the reality of our city.