Mary Wheeler is the best. Don’t listen to Barkos. It’s the fact that she’s clueless makes her the best candidate to represent the other clueless people in Visalia. Plus she’s in a wheelchair, so it’s officially illegal to criticize anything about her, even if she’s running for public office without any experience, or ideas, or coherent understanding of what it takes to be on the city council.
Anyway, who cares? She is the sweetest lady, and President of the World is not that much to ask.
As for the other candidates, I was surprised to hear that my standout candidates from the debate of yestermonth didn’t do so well at the Oval, Barkos says. I thought Mike Lane and Amy Shuklian really made an impression on me with their understanding of how the system works — but then again, that may not be so good: perhaps being too entrenched into city politics takes away any sort of real-world perspective you could have. (I say that as if I live in the real world, which many of you readers will have known by now that I clearly do not.)
I do like Amy because she’s done plenty of grassroots work and really does know Visalia in and out. I like Mike Lane because he’s done a bunch for the school and for the poor of the community (Self-Help, north side redevelopment, etc). I also really like Roland and you can tell he would bring a fresh perspective to things, so you can’t go wrong with a guy who takes a 50% pay cut to go into a grueling, thankless job like a public defender. And Tim Fosberg has a really great handling on the city finances and can put the right priorities into place.
Don’t know what to make of Rusty Barker, as he wasn’t quite up on Visalia issues as the rest of them. Also, he doesn’t show up many places that I know of, and 80% of a campaign is just showing up. Rusty may be just a little… rusty.
No one I talked to seem to like Bob Link much, who apparently was a no-show at the Oval, probably because he either a) feared for his life, b) had “prior commitments,” or c) used b) to explain a). He also made a swipe at my beloved Donya during the last debate I saw, which I am still bitter over. Donya as many of you know is the sweetest homeless lady you’ll ever meet, in fact, the sweetest lady you’ll ever meet, period. She lives on Main Street and has the gall to sleep in front of Link’s Men’s Wear, which is Bob Link’s downtown men’s-suit-shoppery, whatever you call them places. I understand it’s hard to help someone who doesn’t want it, and I also understand it’s bad for business, but is your business open at midnight, Mr. Link? And I just didn’t like the rude and uncompassionate way he talked about her, the coolest woman since Mary Wheeler.
In any case, vote next week, Tuesday November 6. Whether you listen to me or Barkos, just get informed as best as you can, then make a wise decision.
Or just do eenie-meenie-miney-moe. That works too.
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