If you are a New Brighton voter, it's not particularly complicated. You have a choice -- you can continue to keep the current leadership in place, the leadership that has spent the last four years cleaning up the mess left behind by a quarter-century of misrule and waste of their predecessors, or you can turn out the cleanup crew and return the people who prefer spending money to solving problems to office.
For mayor, the choice is quite simple. Dave Jacobsen, the incumbent, has been a quiet, effective leader for the city and has spent much of his time in office trying to find solutions for the disastrous Northwest Quadrant boondoggle that has bedeviled the city for years. He has helped to hold the line on spending increases while maintaining needed city services at a solid level of performance. His opponent, council member Mary Burg, has been at best an uncertain trumpet on most issues. She'll vote with the majority most of the time, regardless of whether her positions are wise or even intellectually consistent. If the spenders are in control, she's a spender. While Mayor Jacobsen has been in charge, she's often voted with him. She'd prefer to spend, but for now she can't. There's no reason to turn Mayor Jacobsen from office and ample reason not to reward council member Burg with a promotion she hasn't earned.
As far as the city council race goes, there are five candidates vying for two seats. The two incumbents, Gina Bauman and Char Samuelson, are both running for re-election. Prior to the arrival of Mayor Jacobsen, Bauman was often a voice in the wilderness, trying to make people understand the proper role of city government and holding the line on property tax increases. Once the ancien regime was turned away four years ago, Bauman finally had a chance to make some needed changes and ever since, she's been the de facto leader of the council members, especially where budgeting matters are concerned. She has been indispensable and if she were to be turned away, the citizenry of New Brighton would come to regret the choice, and soon. She is the only candidate who deserves your vote.
Samuelson is a tough case. While she's served with distinction in both the city council and as a state representative, it is tough to watch her these days. She is clearly aging and has had difficulty following the debate on the council. In a better world, with better candidates on offer, she should be replaced. Unfortunately, the remaining candidates are all unacceptable. Even in a diminished state, Samuelson is preferable to any of the three challengers. Still, I wouldn't suggest voting for her, for reasons I'll explain below.
Two of the challengers are largely running as a tandem. Mary Kunesh-Podein is essentially a cat's paw for State Sen. Barb Goodwin; she is a lockstep liberal and seems confused about the proper role of government at the municipal level. Graeme Allen, who ran unsuccessfully for office two years ago, is a longtime DFL apparatchik and someone who has assiduously avoided any gainful employment in the private sector in his career. He has repeatedly misrepresented how city workers are paid in New Brighton. In addition, he spends a lot of time prattling on about education. That's great, but education issues are the purview of the Mounds View School District, not the city council. If Allen feels passionate about those issues, perhaps next time he might consider running for the school board. At a minimum, I'd suggest he consider actually doing a little learning about the proper role of government.
Finally, we have the case of Brian Strub, the man with the wet shoes. I'll simply refer you to Enlighten New Brighton, which does a great job of explaining Strub's variety of obsessions.
So how should you vote? It's pretty simple. Since the five city council candidates are all essentially running against one another, the key thing is to support the only candidate who really deserves your vote, Gina Bauman. Just because there are two open positions doesn't mean you are compelled to vote for two candidates. The second vote you cast effectively weakens the initial vote. As for mayor, it's obvious -- Dave Jacobsen has done an outstanding job in his two terms in office. There's simply no reason to vote him out. And remember, since Mary Burg is not up for re-election to the council in this cycle, she will be part of city government next year no matter what. And if she unseats Mayor Jacobsen, she'll play a major role in determining her successor for the remaining two years of her council term. Unless you really, really, really like Mary Burg, there's no reason to effectively give her two votes on the council for next year.
Dave Jacobsen and Gina Bauman have served the city well. They both richly deserve your vote.
No comments:
Post a Comment