Followup to this post.
So the filing deadline is over and the results are in, and what do we have? Only the incumbent is running for Mayor, and I talked about him earlier. Obviously a disappointment to not have the opportunity to vote for almost anyone else. Two Council seats are also up for election, and three candidates filed. All of them are people I know and have interacted with personally.
One incumbent is extremely fiscally conservative/minimalist but also hypercompetent. He's the guy who knows everything there is to know about zoning, building codes, and so on. I respect everything about his service on the Council except for his overall vision of the future of city services. His mathematical acumen and attention to detail would be a huge asset if he didn't also think the city should never do anything. He has a strong base of support and will win handily.
The other incumbent is a lackadaisical liberal with no consistent vision and very little backbone on the Council. There are also some issues with how he relates to women. I don't know if that's true on the Council itself or not - the two incumbents who aren't up this election cycle are women - but obviously not any good either way.
The challenger is a perennial challenger from the right who has been getting somewhat closer. He's not a generally unpleasant guy but I've seen no reason to think he has his shit together, and last election he threw out some pretty strong racial dog-whistles, particularly giving the impression that he really likes the non-white people he percieves as having money (Indians) and would like to keep out the others (everybody else). He's also hard-line opposed to urbanization of any kind, which is not reflective of our geographic reality and a definite way to avoid my support even if the other bits weren't plenty.
The guy who I made friends with when he ran last time seems to have decided not to this time around.
So bleh. I mentioned in the comments to the last post that I can usually find someone to affirmatively support but it's not going to be in the Council election this year. (Fortunately state and national offices look better this time around.) Terms are four years, so it looks like there's very little chance of things getting better here anytime soon.
Instead I just get to vent about it, I guess. A year ago my family thought we would be in a position to move soon; that hasn't turned out to be the case. I'm not really sure where we would want to be anyway.
I really dislike it when I can't find some action I can take on things like this, but kind of have to accept that this is where we are.
(This tree is my photo of our city's chosen symbol)
