Regular readers will remember my report on the Scott County, Iowa primaries, where my father, the current mayor of my hometown, accomplished the first step towards re-election. Tomorrow's the election proper, and unlike two years ago, I won't be flying back to Davenport to be there.
Also unlike two years ago, my hometown paper has unequivocally endorsed my father:
The two candidates on this year’s ballot present entirely distinct options for Davenport.We strongly support the options presented by Mayor Brooke.
Brooke has shown abilities to build consensus among opinionated council members and diverse civic interests. His leadership has turned the council’s meeting processes into productive and open sessions.
He has played hardball with council members and city staff, but consistently exhibits respect for both in public forums and private interviews.
Brooke cannot and does not take sole credit for Davenport’s momentum. That can properly be shared by dozens of community groups and hundreds of individuals. But the mayor can take credit for keeping the momentum going by sustaining the collaboration of all the groups that came together for River Renaissance.
And that's just a small taste of a much longer (by newspaper op-ed standards) endorsement. One of the things that's been most interesting for me when I return to Iowa for holidays is the chance to meet all the local politicos, to watch council meetings, to get into the habit of scanning the QCTimes for editorials, etc. After high school, the longest I've ever lived in a single location was four years (college in MN), and so I've never had much connection with local politics. It's been both instructive and fun for me to watch my father in action.
It's tempting to add my own comments about his opponent, but I'll show a little restraint and instead wish my father (and the voters of Davenport) good luck tomorrow.
Hey, good luck to your father, but I just had to write because I never realized you were a "fellow Iowan," Collin. I was born in Wisconsin, but lived in Cedar Falls from about sixth grade until I left to go to college at the U of Iowa. And before Cedar Falls and after Wisconsin, I actually lived in Davenport, from about first grade to the beginning of sixth. Small world, huh?
--Steve
Steve,
Seems to me I remember seeing a pic of you online in a U of Iowa sweatshirt, so I think I knew that you were a fellow Iowan -- other than in last year's BCS, we're not exactly hip...
1st through 6th in Davenport, though, I didn't know--what elementary school did you attend? I was an Eisenhower kid myself...
cgb
ps. meant to drop you an email after reading the whole IA tangle you got into--could have been really easy on all sides for tempers to be lost, and for the most part, they weren't. Made for a great discussion.
pss. I was sorely tempted, though, to jump on the idea that this stuff is "only now" being talked about openly thanks to blogs. What that pointed out to me is how thick the disciplinary walls can be -- it's been more than 15 yrs since our field held a nat'l conference on such issues after all--but there's no reason why anyone from another field should know about that. Not enough acknowledgment, at times, about the differences among our disciplines...