Rant on.

 

There was an election here in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago.  One of the offices up for grabs was that of Mayor.  Last fall, the city’s voters decided to change to a “strong mayor” model of having things run.  This meant we would no longer have a well-paid city manager, and a poorly-paid mayor, but one person doing both jobs for the high pay.  This also meant heavy competition for the job, so there were a lot of candidates in the aforementioned election.

 

The biggest problem with a lot of candidates is finding a clear winner.  Sure, somebody had the most votes by a good margin, but the city requires the winning candidate have the majority of the votes.  Not just more than the other candidates, but over fifty percent of the people voting for them.  So when the dust settled the two top candidates were put into a runoff election, which will happen May 17.  And that’s where the trouble begins.

 

You see, the top two candidates happen to be polar opposites, politically speaking.  One is conservative, the other liberal.  It’s a non-partisan race, but the runoff seems like it is not.  The leading candidate in the April election was Richard Skorman, who could easily be seen as a Democrat.  The man who came in second, Steve Bach, could be seen as a Republican.  I haven’t heard many ads yet for Mr. Skorman, but I already like him better because of Bach’s ads against him.

 

I don’t like mudslinging to begin with, but that seems to be the focus of at least two of Bach’s ads.  One is an endorsement by a senator, who mentions that Mr. Bach is pro-life.  Another ad mentions that Skorman is pro-choice.  This has no relevance to the office of mayor, and it pisses me off that it even gets mentioned.  It’s designed to do nothing more than fan a few flames.  The mayor does not vote on any bills related to abortion, nor would he or she have the power to veto or sign into law any such legislation.  The job has nothing to do with this hot topic.  Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.  But Bach’s campaign wants to talk about it anyway.

 

The important issues are jobs, jobs, jobs and if you want to round out the top five I’ll add roads and streets.  Bach’s ads do not mention these things.  They talk about how long he’s lived in Colorado Springs and how much he cares about the town.  His wife is on one ad and tells us he’s a kind man, a good husband and father.  These are nice traits, but none of them have anything to do with being a good mayor.  What does help are two things:  Experience and experience.  Experience in politics and experience in management.  Both candidates are strong in the latter part, but only Skorman has the former.  Bach has never held public office.  Mr. Bach, of course, tries to make this sound like a good thing, or at least that’s the point of view he presented in a recent forum.

 

I hope to hear an ad from Skorman’s campaign soon.  I confess, I’ll probably be disgusted by it and whatever mudslinging it does.  I hope it at least keeps the mudslinging to relevant facts, but knowing the political scenery it’s probably a distant hope.

 

Meanwhile, should I ever run for office again, I will endeavor to keep my ads positive and relevant.  This may prevent my winning, but, well, that’s the way I roll, politically.

 

Rant off.