Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008 | Mr. Lewis:
As a long-time resident of Mid City I wish to weigh in with my thoughts on these council candidates:
Todd Gloria was a former aide to Congresswoman Susan Davis who conveniently moved over to Toni Atkins’ office to position himself to run for this council seat. Both jobs provided him with exposure to substantial political and mover/shaker contacts, thus securing financial and political support for his election. However, he’s young, untested and has never worked a true 8 to 5 job in the “real life” world. I want someone with solid life experiences and with a significant financial investment here (i.e., paying property taxes for 15-20 years) who cannot be influenced.
John Hartley is a former councilman for this district; he was elected after Councilwoman Gloria McColl retired since no credible candidate ran against him. His four years as a councilmember were a total disaster. Because I was and remain active in Mid-City communities and politics, I vowed that I (with many others) would do every thing to prevent him from being elected again. Although he’s a perennial candidate, he’s not electable, fortunately.
Steve Whitburn is the only substantial candidate to surface with most of the qualities I’m looking for. I’ve had opportunity to speak with him and came away favorably impressed. He has age and life experiences in his favor and best of all (to me), no political ties or associations (yet) that would influence him or his vote. That’s also bad news since the unions won’t support him so he’ll need more money for his campaign against Gloria.
Age and life experience will be the decisive factors in this race.