Takin' the Blog for a Walk

Mayor for Mayor

Posted by Brien Lee on Feb. 14, 2010

politics

My prediction for the mayoral primary? One of the winners will be Mayor Nelson. He's done and is doing more for the city than any other mayor. He seems to have been working well with other governments, council members and city staff. Even though I'm not real happy about our assessment, flooding or condition of city streets, I can't hold Mayor Larry personally responsible for the state of the economy or acts of God. Larry is a tireless cheerleader for the city and has a decent plan for it's future.  

Who will his opponent be in April? My guess would be Jeff Scrima. Jeff seems to have a bigger following, especially with younger voters. He's spent a lot on front page Freeman ads and has a decent web site. Jeff has quite a few contemporary, if impractical, ideas. Jeff is dead-set against buying water from Milwaukee, with good reason. I was especially interested in his position on water from the Fox River and quarries, since I take some credit (blame?) for first mentioning it here Feb. 18, 2007. I thought it a good idea at the time, but found no support. Jeff clearly did more investigating than I and thinks it feasable. We must still go through with the Great Lakes application, but it would be nice to have a backup plan.

I love Bill Beglinger, but he'll probably finish with the fewest number of votes. He's a great guy but his ideas aren't mayoral enough for Waukesha. I'm sure it would be nice to save money by replacing some seasonal workers with young offenders doing community service work, but it's going to take more than removing jobs from law-abiding citizens for me to vote for him. I also think he totally blew it in the mayoral debate's closing statement. He has some decent ideas about making our city safer, but nothing that would require becoming mayor.

I like Randy Radish and appreciate all he's done for Downtown as alderman and the City as a member of his various boards and committees. I think he would make a good mayor if Larry Nelson wasn't running for reelection. One of Randy's biggest gripes about the mayor is the way he presents himself in public. Now, I can forgive a guy for dressing comfortably, but it's hard to forget a cigarette dangling from the mouth of a certain alderman as he handed candy to children during the last parade. Get a clue Alderman, if you have to smoke that bad, couldn't you at least finish the cigarette before greeting the kids? 

Lastly, there's Darryl Enriquez, the former Journal Sentinel reporter. I would endorse him just because of our connection to the Journal Sentinel. He's been to more governmental meetings than any other candidate... due to his reporting. I've also held more newspapers than most people... thanks to 20 years of delivery... but that doesn't make me well-read.  Darryl does have a good plan and sane ideas. I've no doubt Darryl would make a good mayor some day. He has more knowledge of the city and politics than most anyone. I've met him and he seems like a nice enough guy. I hope he makes it through the primary, though he hasn't advertised as much as Scrima.

Any one of these candidates would make a better mayor than myself... by far. I'd vote for any of them, if they were the only one running. But Tuesday, we have to vote three off the island. Who will go home who will stay? Kudos to all candidates for putting community before self. It can't be easy being mayor, so I appreciate their ideas, hard work, and willingness in trying to make our great city even better. Thanks for running.