After the election results came in last night I’m starting to ask that question. I will give the TenHaken camp credit though, I have been hearing they ran a multi-faceted campaign that contacted people through social media, direct mail, robo-calls/push polling, radio and print media. Diversity works.
But I ask people if they recall this resume from 8 years ago from another candidate;
Business acumen and pro-business
Corporate Marketing experience
ZERO government experience as either an elected official or public employee
Someone who wasn’t afraid to wear Jesus on their sleeve
Lots of ‘promises’ on how they will make Sioux Falls better for EVERYBODY.
Someone who got the financial contribution support of the big banksters in town
Someone who used nationally proven strategic campaign techniques
While that was Mike’s resume, guess who’s resume this time around fits that bill? Only ONE candidate, Paul TenHaken and to a certain degree Loetscher. Did we learn anything about what a Marketing guru has done for our city? I’m guessing not.
While many may say Mike was a Democrat and Paul is a Republican, I have often thought Mike was a Democrat in name only and used the Dem stamp to get support from labor and the party resources. After he switched to independent he proved to me that he really never was a Dem.
I truly believe that Paul is using this run as a stepping stone for something greater (kind of reminds of someone else to? Huh?)
I think it will be important for the new council to get ahead of the game this time around, whether it is Jo or Paul as mayor. They really need to implement policies ASAP to assure transparency and open communication between the mayor’s office and council. It’s better to just write open government into ordinance than to take a ‘wait and see’ approach. We have been down that road the past 8 years, we don’t need to be there ever again.