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Wednesday, February 19, 2003 |
Hey hey, bye-bye
The Madison mayor's race narrowed down last night. Paul the Red Mayor Soglin and Dave Cieslewicz each took about a third of the vote. Bert Zipperer, my own favorite as the most liberal candidate, got 16 percent of the vote; Sue Bauman, the incumbent, only got 12 percent.That's a real accomplishment: being an incumbent running for a third term and coming in behind three different candidates. The only election she did well in was the local "Isthmus Annual Manual" election, and she won in all the wrong categories.
Bye-bye, Sue. You started out by voting for the "standing around while black" law, aka the anti-loitering ordinance, while simultaneously saying you didn't think it was good policy: I knew then you were a weasel. It took you years to veto it, and even then you were a serial weasel, vetoing it while trying to bring it back.
You can judge people by the company they keep: Paul Soglin was supported by great people like Police Chief David Couper, while you've had Richard Williams, an missing in action police chief best known for roasting his gun in the oven, and who mismanaged the US Conference of Mayors. You hung Deb Amesqua, the fire chief, and Eunice Gibson, the City Attorney, out to dry for no better reason than personal animosity.
You were routinely rude and impatient in City Council meetings, and claimed that you "weren't a politician" as though that made it okay. You claimed that Soglin and Cieslewicz didn't take positions, which is a lie in either case and particularly absurd in the case of Soglin, who's been taking positions since the 1960s. You conceded the race by blaming the voters, saying that they didn't really want politicians who "told the truth" .
I don't know who I'll vote for; I like Cieslewicz's platform slightly better, but I suspect that Soglin will do better at getting his platform implemented. I've got a choice of two good candidates, and that's great.
MAYORAL PRIMARY: IT'S SOGLIN VS. CIESLEWICZ
