Loser excuses
So I've been waiting to hear what the anti-Phil Baldwin group are saying about their nemesis being reelected to the City Council. Bascially the argument goes: "Well, if you look at the numbers, every time he's been reelected, it's by a smaller percentage of the voters." I point out of course, that the percentage says more about the number of candidates in the race than Phil's personal popularity. I also point out that if they believe Phil's win was just a fluke of numbers (they are anxious to say that Mike Whetzel was only 40 votes behind Phil and I point out that in a city election 40 votes is a lot of votes) then the strategy of getting multiple conservative candidates to run actually worked against them.
You'll soon see a letter from the perennial Baldwin blaster David Anderson in our pages which is the perfect post-election whine: Ukiah's going to heck in a handbasket and the communists have taken over.
I also find it interesting that all three candidates who voluntarily accepted campaign limits won in the city election. More than anything that should tell people using consultants like Muelrath Associates that we're on to them (Kudos to Katie Mintz for her reporting on that for us.) I think the thing people found most objectionable in this race was the perception that there were these shadowy big money people behind Jeanne Metcalf and Mike Whetzel - maybe not Jim Mulheren. People like Phil and Mark Ashiku, and Dick Selzer and the Employers Council plot and plan and what they really should do is pick a candidate they like, come out in public with money and support, say it out loud and let the voters decide. Mark Ashiku had a coronary over the mailer that went out extolling the virtues of the three candidates volunteering for campaign finance limits. Yet those people at least had the guts to put their name on a piece of paper and say here's what we support. The opponents just pile up money and try to pretend they have nothing to do with it. Why?
Here's another question asked this week at Schats to which we will get an answer: Who's going to pay the outstanding thousands of dollars in debt that some of the losing candidates have? I believe they will have to keep reporting these debts and any payments made toward them in campaign statements until it's all paid off.
On a completely different topic, if you missed the ceramics club sale at Mendocino College Friday, put it on your calendar for next year. I have been going to this for about 10 years and get great Christmas gifts there, many of which are for me (my husband Bob said this year No More Bowls! but I came home with two any way). The sale tables of bowls, vases and other stuff that the potter obviously felt "didn't come out right" are some of the best bargains around. The other tables of the good stuff, sadly for me, gets more expensive each year but there are always some gems in there. You have to be there right at noon to find the bargains and gems because everything is pretty much snapped up by 12:30. Kudos to the ceramics club for another great sale this year. Now if I can only being myself to part with these bowls ...