Little birdy told me the race for the open Champaign City Council seat is all but decided.
All because someone shot herself in the foot.
Only three candidates have emerged for the open position: County Board member Patricia Avery, political oddball Bill Githerow and perennial candidate Deb Frank Feinen. (Although it's officially a 'nonpartisan' council wink wink nudge nudge knowwhatimean, that's Avery D, Feinen R and Githerow ??)
At first glance, Feinen would seem the strongest of the three. It took some nasty back-room shenanigans after the last opening to deny her the position before. (And that ended up blowing up in the shenanigan-ee's face.)
So what's Feinen do? She pulls out her shotgun and blasts her left foot off. She announces she'll not vote against the already passed smoking ban while she's an appointee, but after she's then elected to the post she'll work to repeal the law.
BOOM!
'Bout the only way Deb's gonna get elected is as an incumbent. She ain't gonna become an incumbent unless she becomes appointed. She really doesn't have all that much political capital in the community outside the small dedicated R circles. She's spent so much time trying and running and hoping and talking that she's yesterday's news without ever becoming today's headline.
Last time I counted there were 5 votes for the smoking ban and 4 against. Think those 5 votes are gonna vote to appoint someone who will reopen a dead and buried promised and passed can of worms?
Not likely.
BOOM!
Had Deb kept her mouth shut...
That leaves Githerow and Avery.
Githerow's pretty much a political flake.
Leaving Avery.
Welcome to the council, Pat.
(Wonder who's gonna take her county board seat? Let the speculaton begin!)
And so it goes.
6 comments:
Feinen coming out publicly against the smoking ban was the most unwise political move I've seen locally in a long time. Especially in the face of voter approval and polling ratings of the smoking ban issue approaching the 70th percentile. She's also the PUFF candidate (as if there wasn't enough "help" for Deb already) if it wasn't so funny, I'd almost feel sorry.
I like Patricia Avery, and would love to have her on city council.
A couple of issues I have with that, however:
1) She's my County Board rep (or at least one of them). I don't like the uncertainty of not knowing who'd be appointed to replace her.
2) I don't like the uncertainty of Avery vacating her CB seat during the prime months of an election year. I don't want to see the seat go to an 'R' simply because the voters aren't as familiar with the candidate who would replace Avery.
Matthew: Very true; it's bad timing for Avery and the Dems. But if the choice is Pat or Deb, it's no choice. Sure wish some other viable candidate would appear. But it may be too late for that. And I'm not too sure if there's another rational person left in Champaign who might want the job.
maybe Matt Varble he would fit in with most of the councl.
I'm definitely not going there, Anon.
So now it's 3/05/07. Feinen is not only on the council, but the leading vote-getter in the primary, with another PUFF candidate, Karen Foster, finishing a strong third, and 250 votes ahead of the incumbent Rosales. Interesting.
Post a Comment