2008 Woodie Awards
Lubbock elections are approaching fast
Cole Shooter
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: Opinions
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.
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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Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 7
Fred
posted 3/14/08 @ 8:25 AM CST
I only have one point on which to disagree with Mr. Shooter (a rarity for me).
We have needed those soccer fields for quite some time. Upgrades to the soccer complex were promised years ago, but they always got pushed back. (Continued…)
Brandon
posted 3/14/08 @ 2:07 PM CST
Why should the city pick up the tab for something as trivial as soccer fields when they can't even manage LP&L? If they're as important as Fred makes them out to be, then they should be able to find corporate sponsors for it, without digging into the 98 percent of Lubbockites that don't care about soccer. (Continued…)
Rick
posted 3/15/08 @ 2:41 AM CST
I agree with Brandon on this. In this time of economic unrest with people losing their homes due to foreclosure, there is no justification in asking the citizens to bear the cost via taxes. (Continued…)
Johnny
posted 3/16/08 @ 1:32 PM CST
We all have our pet peeves, but there is one thing that has yet to be addressed by the Lubbock city council: timing the traffic lights. While all of this pork is being spent, we Lubbockites still have to stop at every intersection we arrive at. (Continued…)
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