Everyone Endorses McFarlane

Endorsements aren't usually news worthy, but in this case we think  McFarlane's overwhelming support is.  The reason being: she's earned it.  When trying to unpack the consistent endorsement, Nancy McFarlane's leadership becomes all too clear. 

Watching Mayor Meeker over the last 10 years, one theme is obvious: he is ever visible in Raleigh life.  At almost every civic event, ground breaking, or even having a sandwich at a downtown restaurant, Meeker is part of the social fabric of Raleigh. That visibility and involvement combined with the politics of the position ensured unchallenged re-elections and bi-partisan council cooperation on many issues. McFarlane's council position and participation in community events haven't been much different, and they mean that McFarlane actually knows the most pressing issues for the city. 

Her entire campaign has committed to communicating her values and an active blog and social media accounts mean that for modern voters, McFarlane feels tangible and accessible.  Traditional media advertising is also highly visible - with regular mailers, yard signs and television commercials having become common place and acting as testament to strong financial support.  

Billie Redmond also has big visibility with plenty of signage, commercials and social media presence.  But Redmond seems very narrow in her issues and ends up coming off like a new comer.  Education, small business and debt management seem to be the extent of her message and one issue she keeps hammering on: how Raleigh is in some kind of dire straits, underscoring that we are going to crumble,  "we cant keep doing the same things." Redmond says that we will loose our big international companies like CREE and Redhat and our debt will consume us.  Redmond's mailers underscore our debt level as a problem, while current debt level is considered healthy compared to cities with similar revenue. She cites McFarlane's support for the Lightner Center as a problem and then simultaneously says in her "plan for Moving Raleigh Forward" that we need a plan for a new Emergency Operations Center- the same function of the canceled Lightner project.  

As the only committed challenger to McFarlane, Redmond has been conspicuously absent on issues like the environment and transit.  With some of the dirtiest drinking water in the nation, Redmond doesn't see any reason for concern on the health of Falls Lake, actually saying there is no reason to worry and that we are taking the appropriate measures to deal with our lack of clean water in the face of explosive growth over the next 10 years.  Similarly, Redmond says public transit is important, but doesn't want to rock the boat right now- also avoiding taking a position on the important $40 million transportation bond, supporting road contstruction and maintenance along with transit facilities (thanks, Todd),  that voters will consider on election day. 

Randall Williams has clearly given up.  We aren't even sure why hes running at this point. Intelligent, active, and passionate about a number of issues, Williams had the opportunity for a strong campaign, but it seems that his work is just too demanding to give the campaign, or the Mayoral seat, the attention needed.  He admitted in his N&O Profile that as Mayor he won't be able to take calls during the day because of his heavy appointment load.  His efforts at marketing are half hearted at best.  With no facebook page, a robotic twitter feed and minimal visibility across media, Williams just doesn't seem invested.  Why would voters elect someone who doesn't seem to want it?

McFarlane comes across as the only committed candidate with a broad view of the challenges ahead of her.  Her challengers, while quite talented, just don't seem to be showing up, ignoring big issues and intricate nature of the communities that make up Raleigh.

Early voting ends Saturday.

 

Read More

Politics , Other posts by David.

Tagged

Nancy McFarlane Billie Redmond Elections 2011 Randall Williams Transit Bonds

Related