I am hoping that bringing a bit stronger of a negotiating position to the table will enable them to demand that Kane build a tunnel under Six Forks between the two halves of North Hills. (Not a bridge. Bridge stans, eat your heart out.)
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After an all day session, last night’s Council meeting started out with the usual 1 1/2 hours of public comment (omg) followed by the annexations, road closings and rezoning requests. It was a deer in the headlight moment for many of the new Council members. Based on many of the comments, there will be a learning curve with understanding government processes while figuring out individual positions. I do not envy them. As soon as they begin to get their legs under them, it will be time to run again (or not) for re-election. You have to love what you are doing, hope to make a difference, or are planning for higher office. This job is not for the faint of heart.
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I completely agree with you about it not being for the faint of heart. Frankly, I don’t know how folks hold down full time jobs and fulfill their council duties.
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Exactly why I think it should be a “requirement” (read: a widely accepted guideline) for anyone wanting to run for Raleigh Mayor to serve at least two terms on the City Council.
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I heard from a birdie, that at least one new council member has already determined they will need to cut back significantly on their “day job”. Unless you have worked in local government and/or been active in what they do, you can’t possibly understand all the work and dedication that goes into being on the Council. And mostly, you get zero thanks and a wish list of (mostly) unrealistic things to solve. And they are paid peanuts. Living that world is all consuming and most of them are oblivious when they sign up to run for office.
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Were these changed to 4 year terms or am I misrememebering something?
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and some public comment involves accusations of neighborly induced gender changes and gas being pumped into ones house by demonic neighbors.
I don’t have to like the new council members to think this is gross. Working people are, you know, people, and there’s no reason being a current waitress would in itself disqualify someone from office. For all the Fox News you must watch that sounds pretty elitist iyam
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Earlier today, the N&O published this interesting opinion piece from former Raleigh councilman David Knight. He basically argues that Raleigh’s elections being shifted to be on the same physical ballots as partisan races is a Pandora’s box that we should reverse right away.
What do y’all think of his stance?
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Sounds like sour grapes to me. We should do everything we can to get more people to vote.
Wow
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Candidates don’t declare or display a party on the ballot, right? How can you vote “down party lines” including local elections if there isn’t one listed?
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I’ve always thought that we’ve got to meet government halfway. If an uninformed voter who only cares about the presidential election, let’s say, gets to the local elections section, having no idea who the names are, and they decides to randomly fill in the circles, I certainly don’t like that but it’s their right.
What I’m saying is that I do think it’s every voter’s responsibility to do their homework. If they choose not to, well then that’s fine too. Hopefully they have the maturity to also consider skipping a race if they truly aren’t aware of the candidate’s positions.
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What we need to understand is that while this scenario now helps one end of the political spectrum, in the future it could help the other end of spectrum. De facto partisan elections that are decided by how liberal of a Democrat or how conservative of a Republican a candidate is are not good for local governance…I hope the new council will review this issue, and hear from the public, including community and business leaders. I believe the Raleigh mayor and council positions are too important to be left, quite literally, at the bottom of a long ballot in a partisan election year.
Deciding any election based on how liberal or conservative someone is isn’t good for any governance. The council is not going to address the “issue” of having too many people voting for their leadership. What a ridiculous opinion.
EDIT: To add on, election cycles are an incredibly important period of time where individuals that are willing to go to the polls and vote are doing everything they can to be as informed as possible. The goal should to be to inform more people on the importance of their local elections as well as the difference in opinions during these times. It’s so ass backwards to me that a former leader in our council wouldn’t recognize that.
Of course, it does make sense if they’re trying to exclude a demographic (young people) that is more likely to vote in larger elections.
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As @OakCityDylan mentioned, they are officially non-partisan races, but the Wake County Democratic Party decided to endorse in the non-partisan race, and picked which Democratic candidate they most preferred. This included endorsing other Democratic candidates against incumbent Democratic members of council. It’s their right to do whatever they want with their endorsements, so it’s whatever. But with being in such a Democratic municipality, their endorsement does carry great sway.
As @dtraleigh talked about, regardless of the outcome, I fully support having more people vote in a given race, so moving it to the federal general election date does just that. I understand why Knight might think that it impacted the outcome in his race, but I’m not sure I agree. If it was on the date of the federal primary, the Democratic Party slate card would’ve mattered even more as Democrats vote even more in the primaries in Raleigh than Republicans do.
His opinion that uneducated voters just voting for the Democratic Party slate card is probably true, but their absolute right to do just that.
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It was an extremely elitist and arrogant opinion piece. He is making the grand assumption that the voters in the off years are more informed. I would argue that they are not any more informed than during the major election years. They are just more dedicated to voting in all of the elections. For it to be true democracy, you need as many people voting as possible. They should all try to inform themselves about the candidates, but they won’t. However, that’s still democracy.
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I don’t necessarily disagree with some of his points but he is absolutely not the right person to be making those points. He lost, and while the election cycle likely played a role, he’s clearly doing this for his personal benefit rather than some kind of magnanimity.
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The most recent election cycle resulted in City Council wins by at least 2 (maybe 3) individuals who appear to have NO real job whatsoever…he may have a point.
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Ok wow… making me not too upset he lost, and I voted for him… yuck! Dude, you lost - get over it, don’t be YIMBY Stef 2.0 
OK I thought about it for a moment, and I’m still landing on the side of “glad more people are participating in their local elections than ever before” … jesus, what a fool.
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He just needs to stop. If his message isn’t getting through to voters, maybe he’s a bad candidates. Or may his opponents mounted an effective campaign.
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Yup. All he’s doing now is ensuring I will not be giving him another vote if he chooses to run again, and I’m probably not the only person that previously voted for him who will feel this way. He is running any future in Raleigh gov’t into the ground with this B.S.
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