Couple More Thoughts on City Council Forum Last Night
I was a little rushed earlier to get the post with the video up about the performances last night. But I wanted to add a few thoughts.
In general, this field of candidates isn't as weird, crazy, eccentric, silly, or scary as some of the ones in the past. In general this is a pretty educated bunch of candidates and I can confidently say that the quality of candidate is much better than in years prior. No one particularly knocks me off my feet, but they aren't terrible. Thats not to say that there aren't a couple of candidates that aren't ready for prime time or that there aren't a few candidates out there with some really extremist positions, but I'll get to that in a minute. Members of the Democratic Party, pay attention when I get to that one.
But DK wrote something the other day that I think was pretty spot on. Its harder for the candidates to come up with quality issues to run on. Even harder to leverage it. Sure they'll be the "but my taxes!" crowd and the "I'll-never-go-to-a-Chihuahuas-game" crowd, and the "what about the emails!" crowd, but I'm talking issues that will really impact the electorate in a meaningful way.
Its part of the reason I think the incumbents have more of an advantage than usual.
But getting back to the candidates at the forum...there really was only one candidate that I listened to and thought, "wow, that candidate had a bad night". Well of the city council candidates, There were more than a few EPISD candidates that left me scratching my head/laughing. But thats another post.
Bottom line here is that last night was the first time for everyone except Manny Hinojosa. Manny was light years better than he was in the past too. But think about it, anytime you do something for the first time you are probably going to suck at it the first few times.
Think back to high school, you know what I'm saying.
Take a look at my archives of first debates and first interviews with other candidates that are now elected officials. They all have the video political equivalent of awkward teen year pictures too. A lot of there were pretty rough around the edges.
It sucked that the other two candidates weren't in attendance but they both had good reasons for not being there so you can't fault them.
I have video of the school board candidates and I'll post that up in the next few days as well. I'm speaking of the two westside seats.
Oh, one more little note. For some reason that defies all sense and logic, there are candidates that are campaigning for the constable seat on the westside that was held by the late Constable Robert White. Thing is, that election isn't until 2016. I guess they are starting early so that they can talk to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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Democrats, pay attention. City council races are non-partisan. But we as a party have certain values. Look there are some members of council that aren't anyone's card-carrying Democrat. and hell the Mayor isn't either for that matter. He's voted Republican in the past. That isn't my point.
My point is that there are some people with some pretty extreme positions that are against much of what we as a party stand for. Do your homework about the values of the people you are supporting and if they are consistent with the values we as Democrats strive espouse ourselves to.
In general, this field of candidates isn't as weird, crazy, eccentric, silly, or scary as some of the ones in the past. In general this is a pretty educated bunch of candidates and I can confidently say that the quality of candidate is much better than in years prior. No one particularly knocks me off my feet, but they aren't terrible. Thats not to say that there aren't a couple of candidates that aren't ready for prime time or that there aren't a few candidates out there with some really extremist positions, but I'll get to that in a minute. Members of the Democratic Party, pay attention when I get to that one.
But DK wrote something the other day that I think was pretty spot on. Its harder for the candidates to come up with quality issues to run on. Even harder to leverage it. Sure they'll be the "but my taxes!" crowd and the "I'll-never-go-to-a-Chihuahuas-game" crowd, and the "what about the emails!" crowd, but I'm talking issues that will really impact the electorate in a meaningful way.
Its part of the reason I think the incumbents have more of an advantage than usual.
But getting back to the candidates at the forum...there really was only one candidate that I listened to and thought, "wow, that candidate had a bad night". Well of the city council candidates, There were more than a few EPISD candidates that left me scratching my head/laughing. But thats another post.
Bottom line here is that last night was the first time for everyone except Manny Hinojosa. Manny was light years better than he was in the past too. But think about it, anytime you do something for the first time you are probably going to suck at it the first few times.
Think back to high school, you know what I'm saying.
Take a look at my archives of first debates and first interviews with other candidates that are now elected officials. They all have the video political equivalent of awkward teen year pictures too. A lot of there were pretty rough around the edges.
It sucked that the other two candidates weren't in attendance but they both had good reasons for not being there so you can't fault them.
I have video of the school board candidates and I'll post that up in the next few days as well. I'm speaking of the two westside seats.
Oh, one more little note. For some reason that defies all sense and logic, there are candidates that are campaigning for the constable seat on the westside that was held by the late Constable Robert White. Thing is, that election isn't until 2016. I guess they are starting early so that they can talk to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
************************
Democrats, pay attention. City council races are non-partisan. But we as a party have certain values. Look there are some members of council that aren't anyone's card-carrying Democrat. and hell the Mayor isn't either for that matter. He's voted Republican in the past. That isn't my point.
My point is that there are some people with some pretty extreme positions that are against much of what we as a party stand for. Do your homework about the values of the people you are supporting and if they are consistent with the values we as Democrats strive espouse ourselves to.
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