Endorsed by George
Though I (David) was a bit on the young side when it came to recognizing the quality of George Latimer’s work as Mayor of St. Paul, I do feel that I can safely say that he was a thousand times better than that gapped tooth money grubber (Norm Coleman) was. Now even though that is not saying much (1000 x 0 is still 0), I still have a bit of respect for ol’ George. Which is why his recent endorsement of Chris Coleman (no relation, thank you Jeebus) had confused me to the point where I almost reexamined my preferred choice for mayor. Fortunately, my fellow citizens at http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ were quick to pick apart Latimer’s words of praise. So Rafael Ortega is still the first choice on my ballot. Or, seeing as how we are still a few centuries away from instant runoff voting, the only choice on my ballot.
The bad news is that I still don’t feel like I’m backing the right candidate. People have volumes of bad things to say about Randy Kelly, and a book or two of bad this to say about Chris Coleman (excuse me if I interpret being endorsed by Bill Finney – the man who pulled me over for tailgating him – as a bad thing), but there isn’t very much, good or bad, that I can find on Ortega. I fear that he may just be the default candidate.
The good news is that mixed in with the small snippets of appraisals of Ortega’s work, I have seen multiple sources that praise his dedication to citizenship, and I can think of no greater value for a local politician to have. So, with it being apparent to me that these sources were going beyond the campaign rhetoric, I think I can rest assured that I am at least voting for this value. Even if all else is a failure, I trust that this value can be enough.
Nevertheless, if my fellow citizens can get over the whole partisan aspect of this election (and all elections for that matter), it would be nice to see how the actual, spin-free histories of these candidates compare to one another. Perhaps I can look forward to that some day, along with instant runoff voting.
The bad news is that I still don’t feel like I’m backing the right candidate. People have volumes of bad things to say about Randy Kelly, and a book or two of bad this to say about Chris Coleman (excuse me if I interpret being endorsed by Bill Finney – the man who pulled me over for tailgating him – as a bad thing), but there isn’t very much, good or bad, that I can find on Ortega. I fear that he may just be the default candidate.
The good news is that mixed in with the small snippets of appraisals of Ortega’s work, I have seen multiple sources that praise his dedication to citizenship, and I can think of no greater value for a local politician to have. So, with it being apparent to me that these sources were going beyond the campaign rhetoric, I think I can rest assured that I am at least voting for this value. Even if all else is a failure, I trust that this value can be enough.
Nevertheless, if my fellow citizens can get over the whole partisan aspect of this election (and all elections for that matter), it would be nice to see how the actual, spin-free histories of these candidates compare to one another. Perhaps I can look forward to that some day, along with instant runoff voting.
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