It is official -- God help me.

In your mind or the public's?

Iago wrote:Speaking of which, the "Meet the Candidates" event is tonight. We will see if I am either common or display any sense.

Let's see if anybody but you even shows up.

Good point.

bribe the people - free XXXX for all for your votes

"Candidates Night" went pretty well. I thought I could have done much better with some of the questions, but most of the feedback that I got was that they thought I did the best. Unfortunately, even if most people in the audience felt that way, it was a pretty small audience (it was well below zero last night!) and some of the audience members were obviously spouses of other candidates. As with most small town elections, the minority who actually vote will vote for who they know, and there are people running who have lived in town for decades. The primary is on the 19th, so we shall see if I get past that hurdle.

They did publish the profiles of the candidates in the paper, and like I feared the writer misquoted or paraphrased me in a couple of instances that subtly altered my meaning. It could have been worse, I suppose:

http://www.osceolasun.com/detail/67573.html

I will post the story that they will run about Candidates Night next week.

Maybe I am being to brutal and/or underestimating the electorate, but this statement may have lost them: ' “The board seems to represent the city as an abstract entity, as opposed to representing the citizens of the city,” Bjork said. “I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive." ' If it didn't the rest of your comments made good points.

The comment about the law suit may work to your advantage in that it could play to the feelings of an anti-establishment electorate and possibly give them reason to vote.

Some of the candidates sound like characters out of a John Grisham novel. Amazing.

I understand what you mean about having a steep hill to climb. Some of the candidates clearly appear to be ingrained in the community. That will tough to overcome until you gain people's trust. Are there any events you can attend to get people interested in you?

A few, but not much before the primary on February 19. The teacher from the Osceola schools is going to be tough to beat -- he is very popular and very well known.

Ethelred:

That was not an accurate quote, which is part of the problem. Win some, lose some.

Well, I wish you the best of luck. I know you will be honest and keep your integrity throughout. That is what really matters.

The most interesting question from the public was what we would do if we were NOT elected. My response was that I would still "represent" the residents of Osceola by continuing to attend board meetings and watch out for things that will have an impact on them. And I meant that.

That is good. If you don't get elected this term, your actions now may well set you up for a successful campaign next time.

Sounds like there are going to be a lot of executive sessions.

You will like my full answer, ethelred. It was something to the effect of, "I have attended many board meetings in the last several months -- much to the consternation of several of the board members -- and the one consistent thing that I noticed was how few citizens actually attend them . . . " and then I went on to say that I even if I was not elected I would still attend them to watch out for the interests of village residents. The existing board members just stared straight ahead when I made the quip about my presence being to their consternation and there was some tittering in the audience. I think that means that my run-ins with the board have given me a reputation as a thorn-in-their-side, which is exactly what I will continue to be if I am not elected. If anything, it will be better for them if I am!

We need to buy you a big stick.

i still think bribery is the key

I think you misinterpreted my joke.

No, I think that he is just going to continue to flagellate that particular expired equestrian regardless of what you say.

InQ.E.D.eed.

Well, astoundingly the local paper did not even include a story about the event. Just an editorial from Kyle Weaver, who moderated the event. He managed to make the editorial mostly about himself. The primary is next week, and they do not even bother running a story giving people details about how the candidates did?

http://www.osceolasun.com/detail/67742.html

He managed to produce an editorial that says nothing. That's talent.

It was indeed impressive.


The City Adminstrator liked my comments about the problems with the Village's website, so he talked to me and one of the other candidates about an informal get-together to discuss technology and social networking issues relative to the City. We had something set up for next week, but the Village President caught wind of it and insisted that it was a committee that he had no authority to get together, and that he was "tampering" with candidates. But considering that even "official" committees consist of non-board members -- many of them have "simple" residents, and considering that it was nothing more than a brainstorming session, he was not really stepping outside of his authority. (Especially since the Village has him maintain the website, which is not part of his official job description and is not something he is paid to do.)

The realilty is that she is upset that my name was involved. Her bias against me has been evident in the past.

Kids these days. Sounds like my work place at times.

There has been some very interesting back-and-forth exchanges about the issue. The bottom line is that even if I am not elected, I am going to be hip deep in local politics anyway. There is no going back now.

Iago wrote:Well, astoundingly the local paper did not even include a story about the event. Just an editorial from Kyle Weaver, who moderated the event. He managed to make the editorial mostly about himself. The primary is next week, and they do not even bother running a story giving people details about how the candidates did? http://www.osceolasun.com/detail/67742.html

Sounds to me that the newspaper is part of the good ol' boy network as well. It's that way in our town. I've confronted the publisher several times and he claims it is out of his control--BS.