No One Wants to Serve During “Reign of Ethical Lapses”
Both of the finalists in the District 7 general election to replace disgraced former-councilman Terry Gregory have decided to drop out of the race for fear of losing their ethical compasses.
In a rare, combined press conference, opposing candidates Linda Nguyen and Madison Nguyen stood together and, speaking with the proverbial “one voice,” stressed their ambivalence at moving ahead with their campaigns for fear that they might get elected and serve under the “reign of ethical lapses” as they referred to the Gonzales administration.
“We are not dropping out because we have made the judgment that we cannot be elected to the city council,” they said, “on the contrary, we both believe we can win; we have enough money and we both have very strong organizations. The real reason for dropping out of the race is that we are both terrified that we might get elected.”
San Jose State political science professor Terry Christensen says he has never seen this before. “This is unprecedented in politics,” he explained. “From scientifically arcane journals and politically distasteful mass media mailers we can extrapolate acute analysis from substantive arguments that allow us to illuminate eminently vital topics to measure their decision process with various skill paradigms. And that tells you all you need to know.”
“Whatever,” says political consultant and blogger Richard Robinson. “All I know is that there are many candidates these days that would sell their mothers into the lobbyist community just to get elected. So to have these two, intelligent, hard working, honest candidates drop out really tells you something about the state of affairs here in San Jose. You make the judgment.”
Leo, you must be new around here . . .
Leo – Good morning. Have some coffee. Can you say SATIRE?…
By the way, those that own homes, watch you back:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506240150jun24,1,7295148.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
The whole council should resign out of frustration and saddness at the state of affairs of our city administration and leadership. How can the coucil let themselves to pushed around by Gonzo and his cronies. They should be standing up yelling at every meeting until Gonzo comes straight with them about every miss in the past few years. He is a disaster. Send him back to Sunnyvale.
What can we do to change this mentality? That city coucil needs some strong minded women to change the feeling of helplessness the people of San Jose are experiencing.
I think Gonzo and the Council are taking advantage of the high level of voter apathy among the San Jose electorate. District 7 is a shining example of voter apathy at its worst. All over this town people are working hard to keep a roof over their head, or to try and scrape up enough money to buy one, hauling kids to soccer games etc and with the possible exception of Willow Glen and maybe the Rosegarden areas, any effort to get a recall going wouldn’t garner enough attention to even get off the ground. Heck, most of those hiding out in the suburban neighborhoods have insulated themselves to the point that they don’t even know how to get to civic center or downtown. As long as they can get to the mall or the soccer field without hitting any potholes, they’re happy, and Gonzo and his lap dogs are safe.
Let’s not forget to hand out kudos to Councilmembers Campos and Chavez—for another sterling example of leadership by booting the Salvation Army center bid. Once again we prove ourselves to be a small town village, and I don’t mean that in a good way.
Mark T writes: “As long as they can get to the mall or the soccer field without hitting any potholes, they’re happy, and Gonzo and his lap dogs are safe.”
Maybe if Gonzales would fix the potholes he wouldn’t have so many people mad at him. San Jose’s streets & roads are in terrible shape.
And who is the big gun on the VTA Board? Instead of fixing the roads he wants to spend all the transportation money on a BART extension no one will ride.
Is it truely a case of Man vs. Woman? Or is it a case of special interests vs. residents?
NW writes: “What can we do to change this mentality? That city coucil needs some strong minded women to change the feeling of helplessness the people of San Jose are experiencing.”
The fact of whether a council person is a man or a woman is irrelevant; it is whether they are intelligent, competent, and an independent thinker – someone who is not afraid to lead and not be influenced by special interests.
So far it looks as if there is a history of outside leaders developing candidates that are inherently followers by nature, producing lap dogs that merely navigate someone elses agenda.
Like I said, as long as they don’t hit any potholes, they’re happy. They’ll figure out where to complain if they hit one. It’s this kind of suburban tunnel vision that’s the problem.
Given Mark T.‘s posting, those suburban residents
should have nothing to complain about after they
have paid a $5 “surcharge” on their DMV
registration which is supposed to go toward
“congestion relief” in the Valley…
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/archives/news/06022005.html
(provided SB 680 does pass into law and no one
bothers to fight against it)
As for big shots on the VTA Board: while on paper
Joe Pirzynski of Los Gatos is the current VTA Board
Chair, Ron G. calls the proverbial shots. Witness
Ron’s latest BART to San Jose “shared sacrifice” scam
below…
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/vtameetings/vtaboard-06162005.html
I learned a vital lesson on apathy from living in New
Jersey for nearly 20 years: those with tunnel vision
elect leaders who have tunnel vision. Those who
care about others elect leaders who care about others…
Eugene Bradley
Founder, Santa Clara VTA Riders Union
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/
Yahoo!/AOL IM: eegenebradley
What is with all the whining? Geez!
This is not an ethics problem. It is definition of a politician:
pol•i•ti•cian
n.
One who seeks personal or partisan gain, often by scheming and maneuvering.
And the cost garbage gate, Cisco, etc wouldn’t be an issue if we just move this circus to the $6.4 mil tent rather than new $389 mil green house.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/11974269.htm
Maybe the city should invest in a Wheel Works franchise.
Those pot holes are rough on alignments!
Hello Man vs. Woman- The only reason I talked about women is because they’re the only ones with intelligence, except for Hillary.
Mark T is right – it’s the damned suburbanites – let’s get ‘em!!
I would love to see the city offer the suburbanites the chance to secede from SJ – then Mark T and his merry band of urbanites can embark unencumbered on their quest to build the urban camelot of all camelots.
NW – Why would you knock one of the brightest women in American politics. Are the bright ones only the ones you agree with?
Posted by NW
Friday, June 24 at 12:05 PM
“Hello Man vs. Woman- The only reason I talked about women is because they’re the only ones with intelligence, except for Hillary.”
NW: just another small minded person. To judge a person’s intelligence on their gender is one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard!
This blog is about the city of sj and half the city council are women. So I guess that proves NW’s point wrong.
Hey NW,
I guess the bay area tolerance/sensitivity crowd started hitting the crack pipe a little earlier than usual today. I can not find one shred of sexism in your comments.
But then again I’m not very good at the fine art of parsing the meaning of the word ‘is’ and finding racism and sexism where none exists.
Hey Novice, I’m a suburbanite myself but unlike my apathetic neighbors out here, I take an interest in what goes on at City Hall and the downtown, since I grew up off The Alameda and had a downtown orientation from an early age. The rednecks driving past my place with dual full size American flags flying off the back of their monster trucks likely don’t even know how to get to 1st & Mission. The closer to the center of town you get, the more likely you are to find someone who can give you directions. Stand out on the corner of say, Santa Teresa and Bernal and ask about downtown and you’ll get answers like it’s dirty and full of bums. That’s how often people out there feel like getting a dose of culture. My neighborhood bordering Los Gatos aint much better. That’s just the sad truth.
I don’t know about women being smarter. Maybe more conniving, but not smarter.
The problem is recruitment. With a few exceptions, we are forced to pick our politicians from a limited gene pool. No one that has had any success in real life, in the business or non-profit world, that may have a chance to do some real good in the city, can afford the salary cut to serve. We have to continually pick from candidates that are unqualified to do anything else in life but get elected to office. It is so obvious that I don’t even have to name names.
The politicians continue to reject any raise in salaries because it will not serve them in their reelection efforts, limiting any future efforts at recruiting able candidates. In a way, rejecting salary increases is really the most selfish act a politician can make. It helps them politically while damning the city to mediocrity and feeding us mayoral rejects.
Is this for real?? Things are sooo bad that candidates are dropping out…the Gonzales Administration has definitely left it’s mark. a very black mark.
It is very sad that so few quality persons choose to take on the role of “public servant”, but who can blame them? Joseph makes som very insightful observations, and it does appear that those trying to get elected are doing so to be self serving. The actions of our elected officials too often go against the will of the people that have been duped into voting them into office. How refreshing it would be to have someone we feel to be a true representative of the people…someone we feel is looking after our best interest and we can feel confident is being responsible with our tax dollars. When did they stop working for us? When did this become their money? If these people were running a business and having to earn their way… Unfortunately, it is a rarity to have a true represenative whether they be man, woman or patriotic redneck.
John,
Very funny, but there is more truth than fiction in your satire.
Many qualified candidates refuse to run for public office because of the campaign process and the perception the system is corrupt.
But, for the record I don’t think any politician would “sell” their mother to the lobbyist community. But if Momma needs a new pair of shoes, I’m sure their is a special interest with room on their credit card.
Last I really like Terry’s fake quote. To his credit, had he he not required his students (myself included) to attend a council meetings as part of their course work for the past 25 years, I might have missed the entire experience of seeing the gang of four in action.
Now that was an ethical era—-not.
Why is everyone in San Jose so confounded by the current state of affairs you find yourselves in. You elected Ron Gonzales as your mayor! Hmmm, let’s review his qualifications:
He was a mid-level bureaucrat,
He was the previous mayor of a different city, a whole lot smaller, less complicated, and less diverse than San Jose,
and he was a county supervisor.
Ding, ding. Didn’t you hear the warning bells going off!
From what I’ve seen, politics seems to be very effective at neutralizing gender traits. The compassion and unique perspective that females supposedly bring to office evaporate quickly under the corrupting influences of power. Witness Margaret Thatcher’s unrestrained use of military force in the Falklands, Madeline Albright’s unabashed endorsement of child-starving policies in Iraq, congenial Condi Rice’s saber-rattling on behalf of G-Dud, and Nancy Pelosi’s recent and reprehensible hardline support for Israeli hegemony in the Occupied Territories. These women, no matter their names, hair styles, or hemlines, engaged in power politics, pure and simple, and did it without a hint of femininity. It’s not a matter of them only being tough when the need arises, it’s that they show no more inclination than their male counterparts to remain unconsumed by power.
The last truly compassionate elected official that comes to mind was not a woman but a man, Jimmy Carter, a lousy president who, nonetheless, possessed a warmth that Hillary could never fake and just didn’t have her passion for back room throat-cutting. That Hillary, someone who so willingly sacrificed her self-respect to the god of ambition, would even be considered as a presidential candidate demonstrates not only the desperation of our nation, but also the sorry state of American womanhood. The word succubus comes to mind. To have her follow George Bush into the White House would be like surviving a devastating head injury only to learn, upon emerging from the coma, that the wife you adore has run off with your sister.
John,
Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.