On Dec. 9, 2010, The Gilroy Dispatch broke the news that
Councilman Perry Woodward has decided that he wants to be our next
mayor. My first reaction …
”
WHAT?
”
On Dec. 9, 2010, The Gilroy Dispatch broke the news that Councilman Perry Woodward has decided that he wants to be our next mayor. My first reaction … “WHAT?”
I have just begun to recover from the last painstaking election and as it is fading from memory, Woodward goes and – not just throws more fuel on the political fire – but the fuel comes with a force of a king size gas tanker. We get to listen to Woodward position himself for the next two years as to why he should be our next mayor … REALLY!?! … Don’t I have a dentist appointment I have to be at?
Anyway, never to be out done, along comes Councilman Dion Bracco on Jan. 18, 2011, he announces that he wants to be your mayor, too. Bracco even said that he has wanted to be mayor for a while before making this announcement. Bracco said, “I was just seeing how things were in the city. In the times we’re in, we need leadership.” Hey Dion, aren’t you one of our city leaders already and have been for the last four years?
Wait a minute, when I heard about these two throwing their hats into the ring while still being 1,000 miles away from the election, my next thought is, we don’t even know who is throwing their hats in to run for president of the United States but, heck, we have our candidates for Gilroy mayor.
Well, we know that Mayor Al Pinheiro has said he doesn’t plan to run for mayor in 2012, unless, of course, I decide to run again … (tongue in cheek) … LOL! I think I would enjoy my next appointment at the proctologist more than running again!
Councilman Peter Arellano was reported as saying in the Jan. 24, 2011 Dispatch that he would not be running for mayor. The rest of the councilmembers were reported as saying on Jan. 20, 2011 that they don’t want to take the center seat as mayor, either. So the field is set and the two front runners have taken their places in the blocks for the start of the race. This race won’t be the normal three- to four-month contest, no such luck. This race will be for the next 21 months. And you thought it was a long painful ride in the back seat of the family car while mom and dad drove nonstop to the Grand Canyon. Ouch.
But let’s look at it from a different angle. On Oct. 6, 2006, the Dispatch ran a front page story speculating whether I would be running for mayor against Al Pinheiro. Although I had no plans to run at that time, it was a long 13 months before the election chock full of extra scrutiny and commentary. Now we will have 21 months of posturing and pandering to the electorate, a natural behavior for campaigning.
Now we know of at least two candidates that will be running and they will both be seen as the front runners to anyone else who might run. That is unless Don Gage decides he wants to run, too, and then we will have a three-man race which would prove to be very interesting.
On the positive side, we get to watch these two battle it out on every issue because they are aware we are going to keep a scorecard on them for the next election. You will get to know your mayoral candidates very well before you vote. The questions are abundant:
n Who is voting to grant special privileges to developers?
n Who is voting to shut down the youth center?
n Who is giving raises to the management in the city while stiffing the rest of the workers with little or no raises again?
n Who is in favor of approving another deficit budget?
n Who will vote against more housing for the homeless?
So, along with the pain of two years of campaigning will be two years of the opportunity to examine them under the microscope, a fair trade I think.
Maybe this is a time to re-examine the election process as well. On one hand, Perry Woodward will be running from an “unsafe seat” which means that while he runs for mayor he cannot run for re-election for his council seat. If he loses the mayoral race, he is off the council. Dion Bracco, on the other hand, is running from a “safe seat” which means he is still on the council even if he loses. I have heard people say, this situation could swing the votes to keep both of them around.
The idea has been thrown out there that we should change the rules. If you are running for mayor in the middle of your term, you must resign from your council seat and your last day would be that of the exiting mayor. If you lose, you are no longer on the council. So, anybody who runs for mayor – whether they are at the end of their term, or in the middle of it – would be running from an unsafe seat. This might make for a more level playing field in the mayor’s race.
Just something to think about …
Craig Gartman is a local businessman and former City Councilman. Reach him at Gi***********@***oo.com
