Monday, July 11, 2005

In Toledo? The mayoral game begins....

Here we go Toledo! The name calling and the sound bites of selective wording is about to begin. The Toledo Blade as linked above contains the following information:

Mr. Finkbeiner dominated the primary elections of 1993 and 1997, and hopes to do the same in 2005.

He says he has to court a broader constituency than any of the other candidates.

"You could say Rob is the south-end candidate. You could say Jack certainly is the African-American candidate, and Keith Wilkowski is the Polish-American candidate," Mr. Finkbeiner said.


"I don't have really one neighborhood where my numbers fluctuate. I'm more of a citywide candidate."

He says he can lay claim to a portion of all the voters affiliated with his opponents.

"They're all good men. Any one of them would be a formidable opponent," Mr. Finkbeiner said.

Now, Mayor Jack Ford and Keith Wilkowski have both made comments they don't appreciate Carty "labeling" them like that. That they all should be considered as city wide candidates. Yet in the very same article of the Toledo Blade, Mayor Ford states this:

Mr. Ford admits he's in a tough race and that he needs his base - what he calls the university community, the Old West End, and especially the central city - to come out for him.

"Traditionally the minority community vote is 13 percent, 14 percent. If it's that low this time, I won't make it to the general," he said.

So, it's okay for Jack Ford to state he needs those miniority votes, but not okay for Carty to mention it. Other democrats that support Jack Ford have made similar comments, so this is one of those (borrowing Carty's phrase) "it's just not right" moments. The Finkbeiner campaign released a statement that this was not a race issue, and Ford stopped short of calling Carty's comments "racist". So it's already starting to not be about the issues but the one-upmanship of selected comments hoping we aren't paying attention. I'm not sure if Keith Wilkowski has made comments concerning his Polish roots in Toledo, if I remember correctly he has. Which makes him commenting just as silly.

Rob Ludeman may have gotten in the first blow but? Appears Jack is trying to catch up and Keith is playing tandem. Maybe that's the goal, however, Keith Wilkowski is going to have to distance himself from Jack Ford if he wants to win this.

Also worth pointing out is Wade Kapszukiewicz's comment that the article ended with, did anyone expect Wade to not say he thought Ford would win?

In a nonpartisan primary with four well-known candidates, Mr. Kapszukiewicz believes that Mr. Ford has the advantage of incumbency.

"There's really nothing that can replace being the Democratic incumbent mayor in a strongly unionized Democratic town like Toledo," Mr. Kapszukiewicz said.

Actually Wade there is something that can do that, it's called unhappy Toledo voters.

2 comments:

Cyberseaer said...

What? Mud slinging in a political race? I am shock. Hey, who has the Jewish vote? Who has the Christan vote? Muslum vote? Indian (Native and foreign)?

So, you can't call a pot black in Toledo politics? Pun intended. Double standards? What an orginal idea. ;)

Thank you Lisa. I really don't care who wins, since I am 1,500 miles east of there, but the entertainment value is appreciated. Hopefully, when the next race for governer happens in NJ, I can report the same type of entertainment. But it seems that type of entertainment happens after the race is over in NJ. :)

Unknown said...

What's really funny is the three of them are all Democrats, Ford and Wilkowski were the "B" Team though now Wilkowski has decided he's not happy with Mayor Ford's performance so he's running and Carty? He's one of the infamous "A" team members. It's gone as far here as each group has their own "Lucas County Democrat" org.

So I can promise you it will probably be alot more entertaining before it's done. Almost makes me want to move out of the township so I can participate rather than watch, but then again?

Watching might be more fun

:-)