Rejoice, Easter Lubbockites, because the time for the rebirth of our city is coming. The city election is May 10, and with it, the chance for our humble city to finally come out of the shadow of the embarrassment that's been caused by the current administration.
I've been waiting anxiously for this time since the last city election went so poorly. Unfortunately, things here in the city went even worse than anyone possibly could have imagined since then.
Higher taxes, misdirected priorities and mistakes such as red light cameras have plagued us since 2006, thanks to current mayor David Miller and his cronies at city hall.
The more interesting races in this upcoming election are for the Lubbock District 2 City Council seat currently held by Floyd Price, the District 4 council seat held by Phyllis Jones, who is not running for reelection, and the mayoral election with David Miller playing the role of the overly righteous incumbent.
Luckily, there are excellent candidates ready to assume these formerly problematic seats on the council. Also, along with the excellent candidates, are some mediocre candidates and perennial political hangers-on.
The ones up for reelection who I mentioned are part of what's been dubbed the "gang of four." These are the ones responsible for bullying through such horrendous things as red light cameras, raising taxes and promoting the spending of far too much money on amenities the city doesn't need to spend money on - such as a slew of soccer fields for a very small number of people.
The candidates running for the District 2 City Council seat are Gilbert Salinas, a local electrician; Armando Gonzales, the man who spearheaded two recall efforts against District 1 City Councilwoman Linda Deleon; and of course, Councilman Price.
Price seems like a nice man, but nice doesn't necessarily mean he's a good leader. Along with Miller, Price voted to inflate city government to unseen levels every time, and through the eyes of a conservative, that makes him an unfit leader.
On the other candidates, Salinas seems to be a decent man, but nobody has heard much about him. The candidate I do know well is Gonzales. Gonzales's son owned the South Beach nightclub that effectively was taken over by the city to make a "visitor's center."
To my knowledge, nothing has been done with the site yet. Gonzales has been a tireless crusader against Deleon, who is yet another of the "gang of four." Gonzales seems to have the best interests of Lubbock at heart, and he would be an incredibly welcome addition to the council.
A man named Freddy Green has filed to run as well, but he hasn't done anything with his campaign, and he isn't even a registered voter here in Lubbock, so no word yet on him.
In the District 4 race, current Councilwoman Jones announced she will not run again. This is welcome news for anyone who pays attention to city politics. The other candidates are local radio personality Paul Beane, Jerry Bell and Tom Kiesling.
So far in their campaigns, both Beane and Bell seem to be intelligent, decent people, but so far, Beane is the only one who has impressed me.
Bell talked about his leadership experience and his work ethic, which definitely is a plus, but Beane broke down the issues he disagrees with and discussed exactly what he plans to do about them.
This attitude would be a welcome addition to the City Council and could go a long way in helping to repair this city. On the other candidate, I just don't know much about Kiesling. He hasn't done much yet with his campaign, so we'll see.
For the mayoral position, four people have filed to run: incumbent David Miller, former Mayor Pro Tempore Tom Martin, Gilbert Montes and longtime political candidate Roger Settler. For all intents and purposes, only two of these people have an actual chance of being elected, so I'll focus solely on Miller and Martin.
Miller is no conservative - no matter how vehemently he denies otherwise. He fills his speeches with platitudes and excuses, but no explanations for the flawed policies he's helped to enact.
Martin on the other hand, is an incredibly intelligent and dedicated individual who already knows what it takes to make this city run smoothly, as it did before Miller. Martin knows how to run a budget correctly, he knows how to keep city government small so the city can keep growing effectively and knows what it takes to keep Lubbock worth living in.
Unfortunately, the aforementioned traits are some Miller missed out on. There's no question who is the best man for that particular job.
Lubbock definitely is worth keeping as a decent place to live. The decision on whether we'll keep living in the shadow of the city government's mistakes is up to the voters May 10.
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