Salisbury election thoughts

Tomorrow the voters in Salisbury will cast their ballots for three city offices: mayor and two of the five council seats. However, the turnover on City Council could become three of five members if Gary Comegys is elevated to the Mayor’s chair. On the other hand, if Jim Ireton wins the Mayoral election and both incumbents retain their seats the current composition of City Council will continue on with a change in the philosophy of the Mayor’s office.

But which scenario would be the best for Salisbury? Well, if you want my opinion you’re obviously here to read it.

Let’s look at the Mayoral race. The biggest issues are crime, fiscal responsibility, the neighborhoods, and the environment. Both candidates are advocates of community policing, which in and of itself isn’t a bad idea. On fiscal responsibility, though, Ireton simply spoke in platitudes about transparency in spending and improving the audit. Gary Comegys has at least placed the ideas of privatization and outsourcing city services in the hopper and vows to “make it easier for businesses to do business in the city.” I don’t see that pro-job attitude coming from the Ireton camp as readily.

Needless to say, both candidates want to improve the neighborhoods and the Wicomico River. A couple questions spring to mind about what Ireton proposes though. For example, what funding would be there to establish a Community Law Center as Jim has advocated? Or the Wicomico River Project? It seems to me that Jim has a lot of ideas about using government to improve the quality of life, but is that truly the place of the city’s government to accomplish?

On the whole, while neither candidate is exciting or going to radically change Salisbury for the better, I have to believe that the better person for the job is Gary Comegys. I just don’t see Jim Ireton as being as good for bringing jobs to Salisbury – however, he’s the odds-on favorite to win given his reasonably large margin in the primary.

In District 1, the same sort of rule applies. I’m not crazy about either candidate’s prospects for improving the city because Shanie Shields hasn’t done a whole lot to distinguish herself in four years on City Council. However, there’s not a whole lot to recommend Cynthia Polk either. It’s difficult to see her as a good contributor to the cause.

The only race between two good candidates is in District 2. Both of them promise to be good stewards of taxpayer money, and either would be a great City Councilman. It would actually be somewhat of a nice scenario to have Comegys elected Mayor and allow the loser of this race to be selected to fill the vacated District 2 seat. I could see this more readily if Muir Boda loses than if Debbie Campbell does.

Now many who read this will say that the “good-ole-boy” network will be alive and well if Comegys is victorious. But there would be a different network in charge if Ireton wins and I’m not convinced that the change would be any better than that we’ve experienced in the 2 1/2 months since we’ve placed a new President in office.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

11 thoughts on “Salisbury election thoughts”

  1. Mike, I enjoy you blog and an a frequent lurker here. You generally are level-headed and rely on factual info, and I like that. I often agree with you, or at least see an alternate, reasonable point of view. You refrain from such things as posting photoshopped or embarrasing pictures of people you don’t agree with, a practice I wish would catch on with your more radical fellow bloggers. But I disagree with you majorly here.

    I know Jim Ireton is big in the local Democratic Club, and Obama unfortuantely kicked ass. I have learned to leave that behind. It was a difficult lesson. I suspect you may have not. I absolutely support Jim for mayor of Salisbury. The quick and dirty on that is that Comegys has been a tool of Barrie Tilghman and her friends for 6 yrs, and I don’t see that changing. I have watched this city go down the tubes over the last 12 years, while city politicians make decisions that make their personal, family and friends fortunes skyrocket. I have talked to Jim and I at least find him sincere about helping the citizens of Salisbury– a warm and fuzzy feeling I don’t get from Comegys. Crime is out of control in Salisbury. Make this place a nice place to live and work again and people and businesses will find it on their own. It’s that simple.

    In district 1, Tim Chaney was the absolutely the best candidate by a large margin. But this district isgerrymandered to produce a black council member, and there are those who live here who would not vote for any white person, no matter how good they were. Political affirimative action- but that is a different discussion. It is what it is. Again, the quick and dirty is Shanie has proven herself to be an absolute idiot on the council, with absolutely no mind of her own. I support Cynthia– on the simple fact that she ain’t Shanie, so it’s got to be an improvement.

    District 2 is a no-brainer. Debbie has continually kicked ass on the council. I can’t wait to see what she can do as the new City Council President. Boda doesn’t have a chance. He was recruited by Louise Smith, and you know what that means. That woman suckered me into believing in her, by lying more than a Frencn whore. I sure haven’t forgotten about that!

    Well, that’s my take on things. We’ll find out what the deal is in a matter of hours. Keep up the good work!

  2. michael,
    your analysis is good, but the forces of nature are against the incumbents… people are fed up with everything that is government and look for ireton to win with boda and polk…

    gary will keep his seat and the council and mayor will continuously fight for the control of the city…

    cohen will be the lone voice until boda starts to realize that he can vote against the majority and will…

    all speculation on my part… but politics is a fun game to try and predict.

    hehehe

    tom t

  3. I’m not saying that Jim Ireton’s heart isn’t in the right place but I do wonder what his administration would do for business in Salisbury, and like it or not the rental industry is a viable business. The vast majority of landlords out there aren’t the big-time wheeler and dealers and do care about the properties they own and tenants they rent to.

    Nor am I sure that Debbie would become the new City Council president even if she wins – remember if Ireton wins City Council could be exactly the same. Now if Cynthia Polk does win (and she very well could given the tiny number of votes necessary to win) then it will be up to her to be the swing vote. All I have to say is that if Polk wins I hope she does a better job in that small group insofar as expressing herself and not coming across as a woman in vain search for a thought than she showed me in the forums I attended.

  4. Michael, you need to stay out of local politics. You clearly did not educate yourself on this issue and thank God you only have 84 visitors a day, most of which are not even from the Eastern Shore. Go back to selling Insurance because your blogging days are over. I will remove your link from my favorites because quite frankly there isn’t a single thing I have enjoyed reading here for almost a year now. Goodbye Michael. Make that an average of 83 hits a day. At least you’re doing better than Jonathan Taylor. He’s a liar about hits just like you used to be. Just look at his comments. There’re 98% his own anonymous comments. You guys crack me up.

  5. I’m glad I’m going better than Jonathan Taylor, but his vote would count more than yours or mine because he actually lives in Salisbury as I recall.

    Besides, I thought you had already removed me from your list of favorites.

    But enough flippancy. As I said I don’t care for either mayoral alternative in Salisbury, but I thought I raised legitimate questions about where the money would come from regarding some of Ireton’s proposals, which seem to be of a more dubious nature than say, hiring more police officers or fixing the city’s infrastructure.

    Remember, I sat through the meeting with about 80 other people regarding the county’s budget (by the way, where were you on that one Joe?) and listened to most of the speakers complain about their particular program falling under the meat axe. The same goes for the state budget and national budget – in the end we’re all overtaxed because no one wants to make the sacrifice. Unfortunately, someone has to take the fall and it’s a time where government needs to prioritize and not expand. I’m afraid government would expand more under an Ireton tutelage than under Gary Comegys.

  6. Sir:

    Boda has shown no prior interest in City government, has made no meaningful proposals during the campaign and has run a generally negative campaign against Ms. Campbell. How you can suggest he would make a good, much less a “great” member of Slaibsury’s City Council is beyond me. And then there’s his affiliation with both Jonathan Taylor and Comegys.

  7. I personally don’t see why Muir Boda wouldn’t be an excellent City Councilman and if he loses today I hope he considers a run in 2011. As I’ve said all along, I wish we could elect both and just skip District 1 – however, I know that’s not happening.

    More importantly, let’s talk about “affiliations”. Muir Boda supports Gary Comegys while Debbie Campbell stayed neutral pre-primary. Personally I thought the better candidates were the ones axed in the primary but that wasn’t to be.

    Closer to the point, there are an alarming number of people in this community who take sides on political issues based on which blogger supports which candidate, without thinking about the long-term ramifications of their votes. I suppose Jonathan Taylor has picked up the flag of the side I’m usually portrayed as being on, the anti-Albero side. (If I were reflexively anti-Albero I would have supported Frank Kratovil for Congress and we all know whose side I was on – it would be the right side.)

    Truth be told (no pun intended, but I know that’s another frequent handle used here) the local bloggers are somewhat of a petty annoyance for the most part. They may claim to have influence but I’ve found out in reality that the vast majority of people simply go on with life regardless of what is said.

    Obviously I have an opinion on things but in the end I’m just one guy who can put together sentences in such a manner to suggest cohesive thoughts behind them. Maybe I swing 1 or 2 percent of voters but in most cases people have their minds set by dealing with the people in question where local elections are concerned.

    Besides, at least I use my real name. Sometimes I wonder what some of my commentors have to hide by using pseudonyms.

  8. I like how the drones and misfits are swarming your site, Michael. Now why would that be? Guilt and the need to rationalize? God knows the so called leader declared today cannot stand on his own merit.

    Well, it’s always nice to have good friends for friendly banter, isn’t it?

    Michael, I guarantee they won’t pick up on your last line: “…in the end I’m just one guy who can put together sentences in such a manner to suggest cohesive thoughts behind them.”

    But I’ll take strongly worded moral positions instead of subtle put-downs any day.

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