Monday, January 26, 2009

Chattanooga Mayor's Race

I headed over to the big city today to the Pachyderm Club's weekly meeting at the Southside Grill. Today's program - Chattanooga's Mayoral Candidates. As I came in, I saw Robin Smith so I knew I was in the right place. The media was there too.

There were four candidates including Mayor Littlefield. I knew Joe Lance from his blogging, but I did not know the other two candidates so I was wide open in opinion forming from the get go. And since whatever happens in Chattanooga affects us here in the woods, I thought I would pay extra attention to this line-up.

1st up Joe Lance...

Joe Lance is most well known for his blogging. Joe was earnest and open in his delivery. You could tell he was passionate about his topics and his reason for entering the race. He was not polished by any means, but his desire for getting people involved in the process made up for his lack of training. His main target was Public Safety with an Environmental underpinning. I think this will be a great learning experience for Joe and I absolutely commend him for getting out of the armchair quarterback position and into the game.

Mayor Ron Littlefield...

Ron Littlefield was graceful and commanding in stature. He held his power easily and he spoke very fluidly and knowledgably. You can tell he has spent a career in government. I zoned out during most of the speech because it was what it was. A good speech speckled with political sound bites, numbers and past accomplishments. Nothing new here but sometimes that says alot when the town is doing pretty good in the whole scheme of things. I like Ron Littlefield because I think highly of the people who know and speak highly of him.

Rob Healy...

I didn't know Rob Healy before this speech. I had to ask the reporter next to me who he was afterwards. He did something out of the box right from the beginning, he left the podium and came in front of the audience to speak. Interesting. He had a false start, took a deep breath, looked outside for a moment to collect his thoughts and then turned around and started the speech over again. That was a gutsy, unusual save. But it got my attention. The rest of the speech was dead-on. Focus on business creation and business retention, streamline government operations, redistribute funding for Safety/Police Department and train our kids for the jobs of the future. I would bet my last dollar that the guy is a Republican. I liked his style and his focus.

The other guy...

I did not catch his name at the introduction and the fellow didn't repeat his name anywhere in the speech. Major faux pas in speech giving for any political candidate!
Y'all are going to call me a rascist capitalist no matter what I say about this guy but the whole speech was about improving the ghettos in Chattanooga and calling for everyone to "reach into their hearts" and give to the poor people in Chattanooga because we have it to give, especially Ron Littlefield because he is a rich man. I can't make this stuff up. On a Christian note, I totally agree with the guy, we should all be giving to help others. But I will never agree with that concept in government. Our tax dollars need to go to the fundamentals and not wealth redistribution. But the guy gave a rousing sermon anyway. Good for him.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great recap of what I missed! Wish I could have been there. I enjoyed reading your account of each candidate.

Anonymous said...

Healy IS the man. You got me wondering about Healy. Is he a Dem or GOP? So I called the Hamilton County GOP & the secretary told me about them not endorsing a candidate in the non-partisan race. Talked with her a bit, and she admitted she was voting for him and gave me the reasons. Awesome. While I'm not a toe-the-line-or-die Republican, I realized from Mr. Healy's speech at Chattanooga State on Tuesday that he has the same values I have. Awesome guy. Spoke to him for about five minutes afterward. Definitely getting my vote on March 3rd.