In light of how willing we have been to offer opinions on the upcoming Republican primary run-off election, one might wonder why we didn't offer similar insights on the city council election that concluded May 7.
The reason is fairly straightforward: There were eight candidates running for three seats, with a much more diverse assortment of candidates, and we were both conflicted and puzzled over the dynamics of the situation.
The choices were not nearly as obvious and apparent as we would like. A wise man knows when to keep his mouth shut; we decided to let the voters do what they may, without any influence from us.
You had three very different flavors of incumbents: David Huffman seemed disengaged during his last term; he often seemed unprepared and disinterested at council meetings. He's human, like everyone else, and may have had health and personal problems to distract him. But he should have taken the opportunity to retire with some dignity.
Tim Dale has always been more involved, alert and participatory at meetings, but he went into his re-election bid with some political baggage - which we will address in a minute.
Sue Hawkins was diligent and involved, although being the rookie on the council seemed to slow down her participation.
All three ran again; Huffman and Hawkins didn't make it back in. Here's why.
Let's go over the easiest race to dissect first:
Hawkins ran for the city council in 2014 after retiring after a long and distinguished career in education. She was never much of a politician, and took her seat after beating Randall McMinn by two votes in a runoff.
It was obvious if you just wanted to "pick off" someone to get a council seat, she would be the target, and Brian Heavner took that shot, winning 510 to 467.
It is not anyone's right to judge or second guess someone's right to run for office. You often hear that kind of sniping in a small town - "Who do they they are?", or "What is their problem?"
Mr. Heaver starts in office with some feeling at large that he was just lucky. We hope he recognizes he ran against a relatively weak candidate and dedicates himself to doing a good job in office.
Unlike Hawkins, both Dale and Huffman were implicated in the behind-the-scenes plot by Councilman Erman Hensel to get City Manager Mike Ahrens bounced at the start of the year. Huffman seemed to be in much more deep than Dale, who changed his tune quickly when he realized how badly the scheme was received.
Between his poor performance in office and his involvement in the conspiracy, a lot of people assumed Huffman would have the good sense to the the opportunity to leave quietly - and it seems he almost did, but he filed again at the last minute.
Anyone who filed against him who made a creditable run at the office would have easily beat Huffman, and Michael McGahee did, 626 to 223.
The luck in McGahee's case was avoiding a runoff in a four candidates race. Jack Anderson - who ran against Hensel last year - was enthusiastic but didn't convince the voters he was ready for the job. Rick Rajotte was a much more mature candidate, but suffered from being a political newcomer, and from some kind of whispering campaign based on his perceived ethnicity.
With Anderson only getting 82 votes and Rajotte 64, the way was clear for McGahee to get a clear-cut win. Again, there was some luck involved, but nearly as much as in Heavner's case.
Now, in the case of Time Dale, we have a council member who's done a decent job, but was tainted by two things, one council related, the other not. We've already mentioned the plot against Ahrens. All surface indications are that Dale was tagging along behind the scenes, but quickly realized he was being misled and he jumped ship quickly. Still, that whole issue cast a pall across his credentials.
The biggest handicap he had, had nothing to do with his council service, but the fact he owns the former Western Sizzlin' restaurant building which is now tucked on a small lot where the bypass loop starts at the north end of town.
When the loop took a large chunk of land in 2010, its franchise as a Western Sizzlin' was ended - there wasn't enough parking. It was opened as a different steakhouse until a fire knocked the building completely out of service in 2011.
The derelict building is an eyesore, and there were accusations during the campaign that Dale was paid for the building by the loop and reneged on an agreement to tear it down. Quite frankly, accusations like that, and similar ones - such as residency eligibility and being current on taxes - involve legal issues that are subject to interpretation and take a lot of time to investigate. We simply didn't have the time to delve into it.
But regardless, you'd think Dale would have the common sense to do something about the eyesore, just for the sake of community pride and appearance.
With all that baggage, one might have though Dale would have a hard time winning re-election, and he did, slipping in with only 53 percent. He didn't win so much as Kellye Cooper and Steve Corbell lost.
Kellye Cooper has a long record of civic involvement, but with her husband Anthony they are a perfect illustration of the adage "Friends come and go but enemies accumulate."
The people who hated Cooper didn't boost anyone else, and Steve Corbell was too new and unfamiliar to pick up the pieces. By the time their enemies were done running Kellye Cooper down, the voters pretty much had no alternative but to re-elect Dale.
So, after all is said and, Dale proves to be the luckiest candidate of all. We hope he appreciates the second chance he was handed.
And fixes that wreck of a building!
No comments:
Post a Comment