Fielding questions

I'm surprised.

The field for the open Champaign City Council position keeps getting more and more crowded. Along with perpetual candidate and county board member Deb Feinen, county board member (and former board chair) Patricia Avery (who hasn't formally filed) and council groupie Bill Githero, new to the fray are Karen Foster and Garrett Anderson.

I'm surprised because asking to serve on the Champaign Council is akin to volunteering for a public flogging.

Still, so many candidates is not a bad thing.

The last two to seek the seat -- Anderson and Foster -- are pretty much political blank slates. Anderson is a veteran of the Iraq war who suffered serious injuries while serving in the Presidolt's little quagmire. That alone should make someone think twice about running. After all, how much pain is one supposed to endure?

Foster, meanwhile, is the former director of the Champaign County Nursing Home's child care center. She does have a bit of a political pedigree since she recently was named Republican precinct committeewoman in Champaign precinct 23.

She's also had the joy of dealing with the county board while in her former position at the child care center. That alone should be enough to deter her.

I'm frankly amazed. Given the amount of crap a Champaign Council member has to put up with (from the public, from the mayor, from various political and business forces, from assorted activist groups and even from bloggers) I really don't see the council as being the place one wants to be.

It's encouraging that people WANT to serve. It's actually a positive in a growing sea of negative. The filing deadline's Aug. 1. It's altogether likely that other candidates will surface.

Who do I support? Dunno yet, but I gotta say right now I'm leading toward one of the unknowns -- Foster or Anderson.

Sometimes the devil you don't know is preferable to the devil you do.

And so it goes.