Young Emerging Leaders

Granted we didn't have much of a conversation as the meeting was getting under way however my first impression of him was that he is very nice and very approachable. Which really sucks because it would be SO much easier if I could have found a reason not to like him. I don't really know what his platform is, why he is running or where he stands on some of the key issues but I'm guessing as a person who cares enough about the community to stick his neck out and run for office he is running for the right reasons. Crap!

Our first "official" election related meeting together will be this coming Monday with the League of Women Voters. It's some sort of panel during lunch where each candidate gets a few minutes to tell who they are and then answer a few questions. A couple of observations about the upcoming meeting...

First off I found it very ironic that the person who called me about a week ago to inform and invite me of the luncheon was a man. League of Women Voters? I guess we'll find out for sure when we get there :)

The second interesting observation was that the same gentleman was at the city board meeting and he was telling me that there would be press at the luncheon and that's the real benefit to the candidates because those that will be in the audience have pretty much already made up their minds who they're going to vote for?  WHAT? Are you kidding me? I certainly hope those that are planning on attending are savvier than he gives them credit for. Surely they are going to wait until after they've at least had the chance to meet and hear from the candidates in person before judging based on what they've heard someone else say. This is especially scary because ever since I announced I was running I have heard quite a few false rumors about myself. I guess if I heard all the bogus things being said about me and I didn't know any better I wouldn't vote for myself either. Fortunately for society "hearsay" isn't permitted in a courtroom.

My final observation of note was that during the same conversation prior to the meeting I asked the gentleman if all the candidates were going to be able to make it. He said yes, everyone except for Eric Arthur (Ward 2 candidate) who said he wouldn't be able to attend due to time constraints. After the meeting was over people made their way out of the meeting room and into the lobby where most everyone milled around shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries. There I hooked up with Andre Good (another Ward 2 candidate - and yel member). We were talking about the time issues and our respective employers giving us some latitude to campaign for the upcoming election. I asked him if he was ready for the LWV luncheon on Monday. He replied that he didn't know anything about it.

Well he knows now. Hope to see you there Andre.