Thursday, April 25, 2013

Mayor's Race Both Negative and Cynical

If you came here looking for my opinion of the final mayoral candidates' forum at the Richardson Civic Center on Wednesday, you're out of luck. I need time to figure out what my opinions are. In the meantime, here are further thoughts on the downward spiral of the campaign so far.



On Tuesday, I deplored how the Richardson mayor's race has turned personal and negative. Today, I add cynical.
Do you want a mayor who is beholden to unions and special interests?
Source: Laura Maczka.
That's a line used by Laura Maczka in her closing statement during the recent candidate forum at Mohawk Elementary School. She was referring to the endorsement of Amir Omar by the Richardson Fraternal Order of Police, the Richardson Firefighters Association, and the MetroTex Association of Realtors. But Maczka didn't name them. She didn't say firefighters, police and realtors. She said "unions" and "special interests." Given that "unions" are reviled in Texas and "special interests" reviled everywhere, it's probably good politics. It's as if Maczka expected her audience to shudder a little and silently pray, "No!"

After the jump, why it's so deeply cynical.



It's cynical because for the line to work, voters need to throw 2011 down the memory hole. Unfortunately for her, Laura Maczka didn't scrub her own Facebook page of certain inconvenient posts from the 2011 city council election:

Firefighters endorsement
Source: Facebook.

Realtors endorsement
Source: Facebook.

That was then. This is now. Being beholden to unions and special interests is a bad thing. It has always been a bad thing. Pay no attention to what was said in 2011.
Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
Source: 1984, by George Orwell.
I'm beginning to understand where my own cynicism comes from. It rubs off from politicians.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

With apologies to George Orwell, who made the Richardson Coalition the Ministry of Truth?

On April Fools Day, in their "Open Letter", the Richardson Coalition chastised Mr. Omar for using their "stale endorsements" of him as "staunch fiscal conservative" in "2009". For the record, the endorsement was in 2011, after Mr. Omar's first term in office.

In this week's mail piece, Ms. Maczka is described by the Richardson Coalition as the "strong fiscal conservative" and they assert that "information has come to light" to show that Mr. Omar is "not effective" and taking "bad positions on issues".

So what changed? Did Mr. Omar suddenly become a reckless fiscal liberal in his second term, or, did the City Council's slam-dunk pick for the next mayor suddenly find herself having to win the popular vote?

That's a rhetorical question, and I'm no fool.