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The
general election still is before us, but with Kenneth Scott Gray
receiving little outward support from a sleeping Democratic Party,
Davis seems at this time to be a prohibitive favorite to be the second
female mayor in Lincoln's storied history.
The
question will need to be asked if the election of Davis was a pro-Beth
Davis victory or an anti-Ritter mandate. Taking nothing away from
Davis nor laying any blame on Ritter, the norm in this state, as well
as country, seems to show a mentality to continue to vote incumbents
out of office. In a small community such as ours, an incumbent thick
in the decision-making process can, with little effort, eventually
sway voters in a direction away from continuing to support them. A
mayor in Lincoln who makes decisions approved by 90 percent of the
constituents still has caused 10 percent of the vote to be at odds
with them. After four years those 10 percents can add up to a serious
roadblock to being re-elected. Perhaps this is what happened to Joan
Ritter, as it did to John Guzzardo, as it did to Pete Andrews.
Without
judging, I believe it is safe to say that voters are becoming more and
more fickle in whom they vote for. More and more, Americans displeased
with the way things are, are going to vote someone out of office
rather than someone into office. Is this what just occurred in
Lincoln? I will let all of you tell me if that is why you voted for
Davis or Mesner or Fults or Harlow rather than the incumbent.
On
Mayor Ritter's behalf, I believe she stood her guns on many issues
that did not win her any popularity contests. I have told her in
person she was intractable on some of her positions. This noteworthy
trait can be seen as a great strength by those who agreed with her but
was viewed as stubborn and narrow-minded by those who disagreed. I
personally did not agree with all of our mayor's decisions but never
once felt that she did not believe in her heart that she was doing
what was best for the community.
[to top of second
column in this commentary]
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I
know Beth Davis to be a good person and can find no animosity in my
heart to the fact she won the election fair and square. I do have a
problem with Davis’ outlook on the mayoral position as well as the
1,309 of you who voted for her. The mayor of Lincoln can let
department heads run their various agencies with no argument from me,
but what about all the other things a mayor can do for Lincoln?
Seminars, luncheons, meetings during the day when issues regarding the
well-being of Lincoln are discussed will now, for the first time in 12
years, be without the mayor of Lincoln present. What will we do when a
potential business comes to town for a tour and is told so-and-so will
show them around because the mayor is working? For all the great
things Beth will try to do for Lincoln, and I truly believe she also
has our city’s best interests at heart, there are just some things
that can’t be done if a person isn’t there.
Ten
percent of the registered voters either decided that a part-time Beth
Davis is better than a full-time Mayor Ritter or that Lincoln doesn’t
need to have a full-time mayor. I disagree with 1,309 of you. Not
because you voted for Beth but because you feel a mayor in Lincoln
cannot find enough important things to do to fill a 40-hour workweek.
I,
like Beth, have a full-time job as well as several part-time
avocations. Often I find my full-time career causing my part-time
aspirations to suffer. Sometimes it is the other way around, but
always I have had to realize I cannot do all things to the best of my
ability, because of time constraints. I will not be surprised if,
after a few months in office, Beth Davis will also realize that it is
impossible for mere mortals like ourselves to be in two places at the
same time.
Joan
Ritter will go down in history as Lincoln’s first female mayor.
Perhaps Beth Davis will come to the realization it is time for Lincoln
to have another first — the first full-time mayor in our city’s
history.
[Mike Fak]
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There
is a definite drawback to covering Gov. Ryan and the stories that seem
to have an association with him. The drawback is that in the event you
submit an article, which I did last week, and it isn’t run for a few
days, a columnist finds himself having to rework the piece to include
another new and questionable situation while Gov. Ryan was our
secretary of state. This has happened to me before. It seems it has
happened again. I do hope LDN decides to run this soon before I have
to update my words again.
So
let’s see what has transpired in the continuing investigations of
then-SOS George Ryan. It seems Ryan as secretary of state received
moneys from Anthony DeSantis, a land developer, to the tune of $2,500.
Our governor finds no problem with the fact he and his wife put the
funds in the family checking account and considered those
remunerations as just another group of Christmas presents from
admirers. DeSantis, it seems, wanted the just-available Illinois
vanity plate "217" for the family station wagon and,
amazingly, was able to pull off this request. For any of you vanity
plate aficionados out there, I’m sure you will agree with me that
getting a three-digit plate in Illinois is harder to do than finding
Bigfoot in your basement. But maybe we just don’t understand the
process. Perhaps it really isn’t that hard. All one needs to do is
ignore the $50 request for a vanity plate on the license application
and mail the Ryans $2,500 instead.
The
governor also is having trouble with those darn campaign spending
reports again. You know, the ones that Ryan is constantly updating to
include items that his lawyers and accountants forgot to include the
first time around. Well, according to the last CSR, Ryan paid Nancy J.
Smith, his mother-in-law’s longtime caregiver, $6,000 from his
campaign fund for services rendered. The governor says he pays a lot
of people for campaign work and leaves the task of who gets what up to
his accountants and lawyers. So we are left to believe that Ryan doesn’t
know what Smith did for him nor how much she received until reporters
reading that doggone campaign spending report brought it to light. The
fact that the Ryan family considers Smith like a member of the family
after so many years of personal service but is not involved in the
doling out of campaign funds to her is just too long a stretch of the
imagination for even a dreamer like myself.
[to top of second
column in this commentary]
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The
Associated Press has broken a story about a ghost payroller by the
name of Philip LaPuma. LaPuma, it seems, has been on the state dole
ever since Ryan became secretary of state but has done no work except
to raise money for George Ryan’s campaign for governor. LaPuma,
while treasurer of the Ryan campaign in a Chicago district, caused
area businesses which have to deal with the secretary of state's
office on a regular basis to suddenly become enriched with financial
enthusiasm toward helping fill Ryan’s gubernatorial coffee can with
money. LaPuma, by the admission of several key SOS directors, has
never been one to show up for work, fill out reports nor handle any of
the backlog of work which, by his hiring, he was supposed to be doing.
Ryan, of course, through his damage-control specialist Dennis Culloton,
claims never to have heard of the guy, and that is as believable as
all four clocks on our county courthouse having the same time showing
on them.
Our
governor is also miffed with Sen. Peter Fitzgerald for bringing up the
reality that a Ryan bid for re-election is so far removed from the
realm of possibility that Ryan needs to bow out of the campaign soon
to prevent the Republican Party from going down the tubes next
gubernatorial election. The governor is grousing that he will decide
when and if he will run and doesn’t need an upstart young senator
telling him what he should or should not do.
The
Democrats in Illinois are delighted with Ryan’s rift with Fitzgerald
and half the Republican Party to the point they are already deciding
what color the new drapes in the executive mansion should be. A
Republican power struggle between an incumbent governor and his party,
who wants someone to run who can actually win, will cause a divide in
the party that will allow the Democrats to stroll into the executive
mansion in 2002.
Ryan
won’t accept the fact the people of Illinois don’t trust him nor
believe him. He refused to notice that President Bush treated him like
a typhoid carrier while campaigning in Illinois and that the governor,
as head of the Republican effort to elect Bush, delivered the state to
Gore. Gov. Ryan does what he wants and doesn’t like anyone to
question his decisions, so the likelihood he will run still looks good
for those of us seeking an Election Day revenge against him.
Through
all of this Ryan continues to conduct business with no instinct that
voters find his actions self-serving and pompous. It just doesn’t
dawn on him that creating a "Friend of Tourism" award and
then giving it to his wife, Lura Lynn, is just another example of his
disdain for what the voters of Illinois think is honest and
fair-minded.
Ryan
really does take the cake. Soon, however, the voters in Illinois
will blow out the candles on this man’s political career.
[Mike Fak]
This article is re-published
courtesy of www.fakmachine.com.
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here to comment on this article.
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