Friday, April 06, 2007

Righty Cramp

I have been too busy focussing on actual work to properly rant on the current state of Racine, so I apologize to disappointed readers. Feel free to weigh in with your election observations, Unified's annual money plea, etc...

Oh, I couldn't help noticing the spanking Alderman Helding put on his opponent. I wonder if he would consider a run for mayor. And if so, would he be to the right or the left of our current mayor?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Helding is a lightweight and has never faced any real competition. Gloria Rogers as competition? yeah right. Before his first bid for alderman, it took a while for him to actually win an election.

Gary is a political heavyweight right now, not even Helding was willing to run against him. I think the real aldermanic contenders for mayor are Friedel and Karas.

Anonymous said...

Greg Helding would obviously be to the right of the mayor. I doubt very much either Helding or Friedel would run against Gary Becker since they all work together so well and respect each other.

Karas barely made it through his last aldermanic campaign, considering a complete unknown was running against him Karas did not do well at all.

Personally I think Becker, Helding, and Friedel are all doing a great job. Karas on the other hand is good at manipulating the press, but I've heard he is very disliked and disrespected by his fellow aldermen.

Denis Navratil said...

Anon #2, can you provide evidence for your claim that Greg Helding would be to the right of Mayor Becker?

Anonymous said...

For starters Denis, Greg Helding is a republican and Mayor Becker is a democrat. While Mayor Becker does not endorse anyone in local races, you will find he always supports the democrats in state and national races. I remember when he boycotted attending the President Bush event when Bush visited Racine.

If you'd like more evidence, just talk to both of them and ask, if you know them you'll know they are not afraid to speak their mind.

Denis Navratil said...

Anon #2, thanks for your answer, but I find it lacking. Forget about party affiliation and state and national elections, if you will, and focus on local policy. Can you cite examples of where the local policy preferences of Helding are to the right of Becker's? I don't know that you are wrong neccessarily, but I am not so sure that you are right either.

Helding has been most visible, to me at least, in going after various businesses, from bar owners, Pay Day Loan type businesses, pawn shops etc... These are some of the areas where I sometimes find myself in disagreement with Helding while I otherwise find him to be a smart and energetic alderman. Regarding businesses, I have personally witnessed, more than once, Mayor Becker go to bat for businesses, over the objections of city hall bureaucrats. So I don't really know who is more conservative on local issues. I wish I did.

Anonymous said...

well and now they have passed the same ordinance against pawnshops as Pay Day loans. None within 250 ft of residential and 2500 ft of another pawnshop, which means pretty much no where in the city limits. I own Belle City Pawn and figure they killed off any ideas for competition...but... if I decided to move locations... I would have to go to Mt Pleasant or stop doing loans and just reopen as a buy/sell second hand place like the one in West Racine. used anonymous to save time registering