 
Ladia
Member
Username: Ladia
Post Number: 189
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 6:19 am: |    |
would you ever run for public office,we can't be any worse than the people already there.lol |
Fnemecek
Member
Username: Fnemecek
Post Number: 2914
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 9:50 am: | |
I ran for office once. (Wayne County commission in 1996.) I doubt I'd do it again. |
Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Member
Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Post Number: 387
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:03 am: | |
Meh...who knows. Maybe in a second life. Give it 20 years and ask me again. Wouldn't mind being in a leadership post. I do like this idea of being a city ambassador to the neighboring cities and counties. I've spent my whole life learning to bridge gaps between the city and the suburbs. Maybe it could be a way for me to serve the public someday. |
Cub
Member
Username: Cub
Post Number: 811
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:08 am: | |
Yes, hopefully sooner than later. |
Gannon
Member
Username: Gannon
Post Number: 14077
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:13 am: | |
I'd rather be in a backroom making policy suggestions with Cub in the spotlight...but Council isn't out of the question.
Need to get closer to see how this all works first.
The smell was so bad in the past I couldn't get near enough... |
Fnemecek
Member
Username: Fnemecek
Post Number: 2915
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:14 am: | |
Cub for Council.
Damn, I like the sound of that. When is your first fund raiser? |
Gnome
Member
Username: Gnome
Post Number: 1901
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 10:27 am: | |
Run, Cubby Run! |
Lodgedodger
Member
Username: Lodgedodger
Post Number: 596
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 11:41 am: | |
I have every intention of running for office in Detroit. Let's talk in a few years. |
Det313grrl
Member
Username: Det313grrl
Post Number: 329
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 11:53 am: | |
I used to say when I grew up I wanted to run for politics. As I got older I thought running for city council would be a good thing, I had a lot of respect for Maryann Mahaffey. Then I got cable television and started watching the procedures on Comcast and that was enough for me. How in God's name do these people get appointed! |
Bongman
Member
Username: Bongman
Post Number: 1613
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 11:57 am: | |
Not until I change my habits. |
Plymouthres
Member
Username: Plymouthres
Post Number: 910
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 12:01 pm: | |
Here you go, Cub! I'm with Gnome:you should run. You couldn't do any worse than the current cast of characters. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3681
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 12:24 pm: | |
I ran for union office in the DPD and was elected twice. Later I ran for a seat on the Benefit Association and was elected. While those experiences were rewarding and satisfying, it made me realize what a total committment and hassle it is to run for a real public office, so therefore I say: Nay, not I. |
Firstandten
Member
Username: Firstandten
Post Number: 378
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:09 pm: | |
As soon as I can clean out all of the skeletons in the closet I'll run for office. It might take a while. |
Crumbled_pavement
Member
Username: Crumbled_pavement
Post Number: 550
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:10 pm: | |
I've pondered this in the past. Problem is, politics require too much ass kissing. And I don't mean a particular person's ass, but in some cases, anybody's ass. I believe there are things that work and things that don't work. In politics you may be forced to support something that doesn't work just because that is what the people want. That would be hard for me to swallow. |
Firstandten
Member
Username: Firstandten
Post Number: 379
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:14 pm: | |
Crumbled, its called being flexible!•• |
Crumbled_pavement
Member
Username: Crumbled_pavement
Post Number: 551
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:17 pm: | |
Well, Firstandten, maybe I'm not flexible. I guess that rules out the public life for me. |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 3241
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:20 pm: | |
Not in the cards for me. There's too much red tape involved once you're in office. I'm a git 'r done kinda gal. All the waiting for things to be okayed through this branch of government and that branch of government would drive me crazy. And I can't stand to see money and time wasted by all the waiting around. |
Mortalman
Member
Username: Mortalman
Post Number: 309
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:44 pm: | |
I'm not the right color! |
Crumbled_pavement
Member
Username: Crumbled_pavement
Post Number: 552
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:48 pm: | |
quote:Mortalman said:
I'm not the right color!
Ladia never asked if you'd run for public office in Detroit, Ladia asked if you would run for office period. So you can save your race baiting and just answer the question. |
Plymouthres
Member
Username: Plymouthres
Post Number: 911
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 1:55 pm: | |
Why, are you green or orange, Mortalman?
Your statement makes a mockery of people like Maryann Mahaffey, Eberhard and the like, and shows your ignorance in a most exemplary manner.
Perhaps you should try to run first before just running your mouth, then you may have some basis in fact rather than just your supposition..... |
Mortalman
Member
Username: Mortalman
Post Number: 311
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 2:00 pm: | |
Attacking the statement and the poster doesn't change the reality! Nor does it change the ignorance of the assumptions. So, put that in your campaign promises and smoke it!! |
Firstandten
Member
Username: Firstandten
Post Number: 380
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 2:02 pm: | |
I'm not the right color! " Quote
In Detroit color is not a barrier to any office other than mayor. Your chances of winning a council seat being non-black is very good.Even for mayor someone like Fieger might not win but he would be a forminable candidate |
Mortalman
Member
Username: Mortalman
Post Number: 312
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 2:04 pm: | |
Now, that's an intelligent argument, Firstandten. And, I agree with it to some extent. |
Plymouthres
Member
Username: Plymouthres
Post Number: 913
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 2:13 pm: | |
How you could have viewed what I said as an attack is beyond me, but ignoring my assertion doesn't help your argument. You should put out whatever you are smoking as your comment makes no valid sense in reality at all, much as most of your posting do. |
Lafayette
Member
Username: Lafayette
Post Number: 37
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 2:15 pm: | |
If you have to be black to win a seat on city council in Detroit, how do you explain the repeated victories of Maryann Mahaffey and Mel Ravitz, the two most recent white council members? |
Lafayette
Member
Username: Lafayette
Post Number: 38
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 2:16 pm: | |
...and Sheila Cockrel? Forgot to mention her as well. |
Ladia
Member
Username: Ladia
Post Number: 190
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 3:53 pm: | |
crumbled pavement, i agree politics do require alot of a** kissing, it also requires people to exaggerate their opponents faults,and make that person look bad as possible. |
Professorscott
Member
Username: Professorscott
Post Number: 1632
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 4:18 pm: | |
The Prof was once a city councilperson in one of our many fine suburban communities. It happened to be one that paid a token amount per meeting, so this was certainly not done for the money!
It is a very rewarding way to serve the community. As Ray1936 points out above, it requires an astonishing amount of commitment (in time, effort and funds) to get oneself elected. That is why not everyone bothers with it.
But if some of you fellow DYers are considering it, the Prof says: go for it! We need new thinking and fresh insights, in every arena of public service.
By the way, responding to Ladia's very recent post: In my two campaigns, I never said one negative thing about anyone I was running against. There were some candidates talking trash about me, but it rolled off. You don't have to cuss to sell rap records, as Will Smith once said. |
Swingline
Member
Username: Swingline
Post Number: 1186
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 4:23 pm: | |
I disagree with some of the earlier posters in this thread. It seems beyond dispute that white candidates in Detroit, especially those with ethnic last names, face obstacles to city-wide election that black candidates do not. This is no different than acknowledging that someone named Lashawnda Jones is unlikely to get elected to the Livonia City Council anytime soon. Racism in both directions? Maybe. Probably.
The "this is our town now, we want to elect folks who look like us" attitude is just as prevalent in Detroit as the "black folks can't govern" attitude in suburban and outstate areas. Both attitudes are equally stupid.
Since Coleman Young's first term began 34 years ago there has not been a white person elected to a non-judicial city-wide position who did not also have a pre-Coleman Young-era political background. The white folks elected during that period do not comprise a long list: Eberhard, Kelley, Ravitz, Mahaffey and S. Cockrel. |
Crumbled_pavement
Member
Username: Crumbled_pavement
Post Number: 553
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 5:53 pm: | |
Swingline, while what you say may be true, it is irrelevant. Ladia asked if YOU would run for ANY public office, not if a white person could win an election in Detroit. The fact that anytime someone says "election" a gang of people rush out and say, "I'm the wrong color" or "whites can't get elected in Detroit" speaks volumes! |
Mortalman
Member
Username: Mortalman
Post Number: 314
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 6:48 pm: | |
So, why is your reality worth more than or righter than ANYONE else's, Crumbled_pavement? 'splain that one to me. Expanding the question for me is as valid as your sticking right to the perceived point. And, just because you and Plymouthres try to jump bad with feigned self-righteous indignation that doesn't mean anything to me. Anger is an attempt at controlling what others say or do and you two are pikers in that department. My voice is as valid as yours whether you two think so or not. So, unless you tell me your name is Lowell and I can’t say what I am saying then you’ll just have to live with it! I think this is called getting what you give. You’ll have to go find somebody else to try to bully we’re all full up with bully’s here. We whipped them and sent them to their rooms. |
Crumbled_pavement
Member
Username: Crumbled_pavement
Post Number: 554
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 7:02 pm: | |
So by saying let's stick to the topic I am bullying you and trying to stop you from speaking your reality?
OMG,I'm done with this topic. Or better yet, what used to be the topic.
(Message edited by crumbled_pavement on September 23, 2008) |
Ggores
Member
Username: Ggores
Post Number: 391
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 7:54 pm: | |
To the original question posed (seeing as this thread has apparently taken a little nose-dive) - Nope. Hell, I'd be shredded cheese by the time the opponent's ran a Google search on my ass. But anyways, my first priority would still be to purchase a brand new lawn mower for each household in Detroit. And I AM serious about that one. |
Gannon
Member
Username: Gannon
Post Number: 14111
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 8:39 pm: | |
Nah, Rent-a-Goat.
We're not going to encourage ANY more petrol consumption, ever! (heh) |