First, I want to commend reporters Ellis, Levisay and Luther for their multitude of stories in the paper today. If you read the Sunday Argus Leader, you have no excuse for not voting in the mayoral runoff and not being informed.
I have read through all of the articles and picked up on some of the finer points, here it goes. First, their campaign styles;
Staggers, although an elected official for years, has not been considered in the mainstream, and Huether is making his first run for public office. Between the two of them, they secured the majority of the vote Tuesday. “If you think about that, voters are basically saying, ‘I don’t want to do business the way we’ve been doing business,’ ” Knobe said. “People are looking for a different way of doing things, and it showed up in this local election,” he said.
I agree somewhat. I think Mike’s supporters are people who thinks the city doesn’t spend enough on social programs and quality of life projects, while Staggers supporters are people who want the city to focus on the citizens and not special interests.
Both rejected a task force plan to build a new events center, contending the plan was too expensive.
Mike didn’t reject the plan until he noticed that Kermit got a lot of traction on the issue. This was another issue that Mike stole from Kermit and repackaged.
“That’s the number-one priority, the roads,” she said. “For the 30 years we’ve been here, they’ve never been this bad.”
This is another reason why Kermit makes the most sense. Kermit has been saying for years that we need to focus on infrastructure with the 2nd penny, not monkey crappers. Kermit has a proven record of fighting for this, Mike just has his word.
But Huether’s choice of a Democratic consulting firm, Hildebrand Strategies, as well as donations to his campaign from labor unions, has aroused the suspicions of some Republicans. Last week, some of them were beginning to coalesce around Staggers.
The Minnehaha County Democratic Party referred to Huether as “our mayoral candidate” when it promoted a speech that he was scheduled to make at the Labor Temple during an event to celebrate this year’s state of the union address.
As I have said, there is no room for partisanship in this race, and Mike has taken it to the highest level. I find it hypocritical of Mike to claim he is better prepared to run the city because of his executive leadership experience, yet can’t run his own campaign. You think Munson spent a lot of dough on consultants? Mike will break the bank if his administration runs like his campaign, don’t take my word on it, listen to the horse himself;
“I hired Hildebrand Strategies because they know how to run a political campaign and I don’t,” he said. “I hire the best people in the business, and I did that in private business, did it for my campaign and will do it in City Hall.
But, Lentsch (SD GOP) added, Huether’s campaign consultant and the labor donations have injected partisanship into the race.
“If he wants to make this a partisan race, it’s unfortunate,” Lentsch said. “But if that’s what he wants, we’ll dance.”
I’m not a fan of Lentsch, and if I was Kermit, I would continue to keep partisan politics out of the race. Kermit has done well with all parties, he doesn’t need to alienate Dems and Indies. I’ll give props to Munson for reaching across the aisle and getting Johnson’s endorsement in the last mayoral election. But that does not mean the SD GOP can’t do something on their own to promote Kermit, and over the past couple of days, I have heard that just might be a possibility.
The two candidates probably will try to meet with Brown, Peterson and Costello in hope of securing endorsements and luring supporters.
I suspect there may not be any endorsements, especially from Brown who is furious with Huether for the Events Center ad and has had trouble working with Staggers in the past. Mike seems to be confused about Kermit’s honesty and clarity. That is the one thing I like the most about Kermit, he tells it like it is;
“Mr. Staggers talks about, ‘Well, I am going to have an administrative assistant.’ No kidding. We’re all going to have an administrative assistant. That again goes to show how a lack of experience when it comes to the executive roles within organizations. If you don’t have that, it’s really going to hurt you if you become the mayor of Sioux Falls because Sioux Falls … is a $337 million operation.”
What’s wrong with telling people that Kermit will hire a secretary? Why would you have a problem with this? That just seems odd. As for running a $337 million dollar budget, I find it hard to imagine that you are prepared since you had to hire a consulting firm to run a campaign with a very small budget. Kermit is running it on his own and up until today, he was doing it out of his house (his new headquarters opens today at 2 PM, 49th and Western). Kermit approaches everything in his life with fiscal responsibility.
“When I (Huether) started this campaign, I made a promise to do it the old-fashioned way, and that was actually taking the time to go door to door, business to business, and reach out to everyone. And I mean everyone.
Then why hire a very partisan campaign strategist and take money from unions? If you really want to see a grassroots campaign, all you have to do is look at Kermit’s. And just for clarification Kermit has paid me $0 to promote him on my site. In fact I donated money to his campaign. I believe partisanship and money in politics is the problem and I would not take one red cent from Kermit. As I told him, “It is very important that we get you elected.” I joked with Huether in an email that, “If each of the opposing candidates to Kermit want to give me $500 I’ll stop blogging about them :)”
“My goal is to let everyone have a voice and everyone have a seat at the table of city government. And when that occurs, our city government will be stronger than you can ever imagine.
“Someone who votes for me would be someone who wants to infuse common sense into government, someone who wants to balance progress with prudence, and someone who ultimately wants to get something done and is tired of politics as usual.”
Mike is at it again, repackaging Kermit’s ideals. When you take money from Unions how can you say ‘everyone’ will have a seat at your table? You can’t take from special interests then turnaround and say you represent ‘all of us’ Not sure if you have been watching city government very closely over the past few years, but the councilors who have ate from the trough of special interests have voted for those interests. Why do you think Costello’s campaign fell flat on it’s face?
Kermit points out the benefits of a Lyon County casino, that I have been harping about for months;
“There’s going to be a lot of good things associated with that when it comes to jobs and when it comes to constructing it ..
FINALLY! Someone admits the obvious. Also Kermit points out his biggest difference between him and Huether; EXPERIENCE!
“Actually being involved in government is a lot different than being involved in business, and that’s something that maybe Mike is a little naive about. … He’s on the outside. He’s never been in the inner workings of government and how it operates. I’ve been in government in the City Council for eight years, and I’ve been finding efficiencies for eight years. An outsider coming in, it’s going to take an outsider a while to even figure out what’s going on.”
Kermit is right, he knows his stuff. I still remember one night in a council meeting he even questioned former SD Supreme Court justice and current city attorney Robert Admundson about state law, and Robert couldn’t give him a clear answer. That says a lot, when you have a councilor who knows more about state law then a former SC justice. This is where Mike would be lost, in fact extremely lost. We need to have a mayor who understands legislation and law, and not just credit card laws that are used to manipulate people. I want someone who can interpret the law to benefit of the citizenry, not the benefit of billionaires.
Kermit’s biggest accomplishment as mayor will be helping businesses succeed, which will play into more jobs;
“But also another area on the City Council that I’ve been doing for eight years, literally, is trying to reduce these unnecessary regulations. …
Now unto the thing Sy can’t stop talking about;
In the big picture, Huether and Staggers have similar visions for an events center in Sioux Falls. They both say the city needs one but that broad-based taxes should not increase because of it. Both say there is money to be found in the private sector through naming rights and sponsorships. Huether says bonding and improvement districts are a possibility, along with bed and booze taxes. Staggers opposes bonding, which is essentially borrowing.
Huether really is the follower on this issue. If you would have told me six months ago that Staggers would be the leader in getting an Events Center built, I would have laughed in your face, but I truly believe with Kermit as mayor and with his creative funding ideas, we will break ground before his first term is over, and 90% of the citizenry will have a consensus on the issue.
And now unto something nobody wants to talk about, the budget;
At the end of 2009, the city had an outstanding debt of $277.3 million. Total debt increased last year by $47 million.
How is it possible that the city increased the debt by $47 million in a year they should have been tightening their belt? Two words; fiscal irresponsibility.
But no worries, Mike to the rescue, here he goes again, repackaging another Staggers’ idea;
If he’s elected mayor, Huether plans to analyze inefficiencies and waste to tighten spending. If families and businesses are tightening their belts, he said, residents expect the city to do the same.
The man has no shame, this time he even STEALS a direct quote from Kermit, Kermit has been saying this for over a year, and Mikey-come-lately swoops in and tries to steal his thunder. Here he does it again;
For example, he would look into consolidating code enforcement
This is actually something Kermit has been fighting hard for and an audit of code enforcement proved that Kermit was right. Who do I trust to fix the mess? Someone who understands government, not someone who steals other candidates ideas then pretends he has all the answers.
Staggers has developed a reputation as a budget hawk while on the council. If he becomes mayor, he said he would establish a (Hoover) commission to examine the government and to determine where efficiencies can be found. He says city employees often offer the best ideas for how to save money.
Kermit has a strong record of fiscal ‘prudence’. Mike only has words. Even the AL agrees;
Both candidates say spending needs to be kept in check, but experience over the last eight years shows that Staggers would likely be the more frugal of the two.
The next 10 days should be interesting. Expect to see more come out about Mike’s partisanship. I also expect some surprise endorsements on both sides and you can guarantee both sides will have some kind of ATTACK ad in next week’s Sunday paper, which is unfortunate (but fun to watch). If I had to pick a winner today I wouldn’t bet nickel on my prediction. It’s gonna be very close or a blowout for one of the candidates.