I went to bed on the night of September 1, 2009 disheartened.  The man I was supporting for the Phoenix District 6 seat did not win.  However, the appointed incumbent failed to win the race outright, and now faces a run-off in November.  For those that do not know about this race, I wrote about it in the very first hub I ever published.  It still is by far the most read hub I have written to date.  I want to take a few moments to update this race and the politics that have been going on.  If you have not read my first hub, please feel free to read it here.  It will help you understand why this current race carries so much importance to me.

For those that have followed my hubs, you already know that I despise politicians that forget why they hold the elected office they have.  The constituents that one represents are that representative's employers, without exception!  So when Barney Frank says that he would rather speak to a dining room table than a constituent with an opposing view, I believe that to be a high crime and grounds for impeachment and imprisonment.  This is indicative of a power gathering idiot, and NOT the type of REPRESENTATIVE our forefathers had in mind to populate both the Congress and White House.  You are the very ones that are causing the rise of apathy in our country today.  May you serve in hell some day for your arrogance and abuse of your constituents!

Now that I have said my strongest words, I will get off my soapbox, and let you find out why I am so inflamed and the reason I write this hub now.  I have a great love for this great city in the middle of the Arizona desert, my wife will testify to that.  I will hand it to our appointed Councilman Sal DiCiccio, because with the help of a local political weasel, Jason Rose, he ran a very smart campaign.  At the end of the campaign, he was focusing his attacks on the one he referred to as his "top rival", Dana Kennedy.  Let me tell you why this was such a brilliant tactic.  By making this claim, it added fuel to the fire of that opponent, while taking fuel from the others in the field.  The pick of this opponent was also as brilliant in as much as I said in my first hub on this race that this was the most viable opponent with completely opposite views, making political separation much easier to display, and the chance of ethics being used against him in the race are substantially reduced, because he can now focus on the political differences between them deflecting any ethical arguments.  Our appointed Councilman knows, from experience in the race against me, that his election is a lot more questionable if his opponent offers political positions that are much closer to his.  The political differences between the appointed Councilman and I are astonishingly small; our greatest differentiation was the ethics and influences.  Which became the primary claims I made in our race, since the other issues were so comparable.

So now I want to use a spotlight on the politics as usual, in this run-off race.  First our appointed Councilman has been placing signs all over the District claiming "more Police" if Councilman DiCiccio is elected.  I have not heard him say what his goal is for the next 4 years if he is elected.  How many more Police do you intend to add appointed Councilman DiCiccio?  Just to remind you, that as a candidate in your first run for this seat, some 16 years ago, you opposed a proposition that would require the substantial addition of Police and Firefighters.  Give the people a number that we, as constituents, can hold against your performance in the next 4 years.  All this was explained in my first hub.

It is nice to see that Appointed Councilman DiCiccio has not changed.  The other day it was reported that our appointed Councilman was out with his wife at the Wrigley Mansion and entered into a private Democratic fundraiser.  You can read more on this from the Arizona Republic.  Now this is a he said / she said claim (quite literally), but it is indicative of the two polished political animals.  I find this expected, but not the most palatable.  Whether appointed Councilman DiCiccio just happened to be there or not, it just sounds very "coincidental" that he would be there on the same night that there was a political fundraiser.  Was he soliciting campaign donations while he was there?  I could not say, since I was not there, but he has raised over $225,000 for this race, and I am sure that type of money does not just fall into someone's lap.  It has to take some asking, or political panhandling.

Now let me turn to the challenger, Dana Kennedy.  I have had a chance to hear you at the first debate.  I must say that you are a very polished speaker.  You appeared to very versed on most all the issues and you formed coherent arguments.  My reservation about your candidacy is your very blatant ties to Unions.  The last Council Representative that was on the Council with such Union ties, attempted to tie the City of Phoenix to a building code that only one other City in the Country adopted; a building code that the Unions had a vested interest in its passage.  That move was defeated, but a lot of taxpayer resources were wasted on that two and a half year fight.  This past makes me very leery of YOUR election, but I would hope that you would take the council of your constituents when it comes to issues that would come before the Council.

What I can say, we already know for sure what we have with our appointed Councilman, and that I can say I do not find too palatable, however we really do not know what we would be getting with the Challenger, as there is no established track record to judge against for her.  So how does one decide?  This is my thought process.  The greatest numbers cast by a Council member concerns zoning issues.  The budget is an annual thing, but zoning is such a large portion that there is an entire agenda dedicated to just those cases.  So let us look at the role of a Council Member.  The overwhelming majority of votes cast by a Council Representative concerns zoning, which means neighborhood issues.  In that light, I want the Council Representative to be sensitive to neighborhood issues.  Now matter what any elected official says, the neighborhood is the one that pays the price for the increased tax base, so why should their voice not carry some weight?  Looking at the campaign records, our appointed Councilman has raised such a large amount of donations from developers and the like; I question just exactly what price will be extracted from him.  After all, there is no such thing as a "free lunch".  I went through those economic principles in another hub I wrote (Economics 101).  Which neighborhood will pay the piper for Councilman DiCiccio's campaign contribution?  At least the challenger in this race does not have that many strings, for now.  Do we vote for a known commodity that has proven to be self-serving, or should we vote for new blood?

Study up on the issues and be sure to vote in November.  Your neighborhood could depend on it.