I think I’ve said before that this Book writing of mine may not just be book writing. It may serve as the beginning of a campaign for Congress. I suppose rather than look too much like Herman “buy my book” Cain I ought to mix it up a bit with the potential candidates I could face in a primary.
I haven’t put much thought into the other candidates but I do know a bit about one potentially formidable challenger so I’ll play a little offense to keep all the others on their guard. Their turn could come next.
The fellow I know sits on the Duluth City Council. He’s been there for some years and I swear I have no strong impression of anything he’s done on the council. That’s not a big deal. Tons of Congressmen don’t get a chance to do anything of consequence until they’ve served for a decade or longer. That’s a lot longer than Rick Nolan served. But this salvo is directed at Duluth City Councilor Jeff Anderson not Rick.
Jeff was paralyzed when facing an issue he chose to believe was not part of his “turf.” It was something I knew would affect all of Duluth even if it was the School District’s mess. In 2006 the school board hogged $450 million precious tax dollars to rebuild most of its schools. It did it without a very compelling case that such a massive project was necessary. It did this without asking for the voter’s approval. Very few City Councilors could muster the courage to criticize something that both the Chamber of Commerce and the local Unions had endorsed. Jeff Anderson sure couldn’t.
I did. I was early. I didn’t give up. I raised hell. I was right and today the School District has lost the trust of the citizens of Duluth who Jeff represents. As a result of taking five million classroom dollars each year to pay off building bonds for a plan that keeps leaping past its promised cost the school district will be faced with draconian cuts on top of draconion cuts already in force.
As a City Councilor Jeff Anderson saw first hand the unwillingness of the School administration to treat with them honestly and today the City Council is faced with unpleasant facts like the District’s failure to account for the logistics of parking students attending a huge new school in a residential neighborhood.
If cowardice and biting one’s fingernails is what the voters of northern Minnesota want for their new Congressman they will surely get such a representative in Jeff Anderson.
If they want someone brave enough to speak out and smart enough to call a train wreck long before impact… Well, I have another candidate in mind for them. Oh yeah, he’s busy writing a book.
