As I always say, follow the money. It shouldn’t be any shock that a former Sanford executive, John Paulson, is getting these kind of donations for a humble city council run. DOC:Â 01-06-16-finance-disclosure-stmt-paulson
As I always say, follow the money. It shouldn’t be any shock that a former Sanford executive, John Paulson, is getting these kind of donations for a humble city council run. DOC:Â 01-06-16-finance-disclosure-stmt-paulson
Kermit Staggers is about to surrender his chair to paulson. With this list of donors there can be left no doubt about the direction this city is about to take. To Joe Sixpack?
B.O.H.I.C.A
Wow so who owns this guy.
I wouldn’t count Kermit out yet. I think his short absences were a blip on the screen, and I think his honesty about his health problems is admirable, and people (voters) will see it that way.
That’s not what I’d call big money.
02/13/15
sanfordhealth.org
John Paulson, vice president for corporate administration, will retire after 4o years of experience in health care administration. Paulson joined the health system in 1987 as a system vice president. During the past three decades, he has served in a variety of roles for the organization, including foundation director, chief executive officer for Sanford Vermillion Medical Center and executive chief of staff. Most recently, Paulson has worked closely with the organization’s governing board of trustees.
The argus had a small story on this today. Just mentions in passing that Paulson has over a $14,000 campaign chest. The story would have had much more impact if it included WHO these donors are. They know, yet are prisoners to their advertising dollars.
A Sanford groupy is another vote for Huether. He’s Sanford owned. So much Sanford. The ex-mayor left for a job at Sanford. You lose if you run for councilor but don’t have a Sanford link. Check for the Sanford tattoo so you don’t infringe on another pimp’s territory, namely ‘Sanford Falls’.
Sanford said 6 times above. The Antichrist?
munson is collecting a check for doing nothing from sanford now?
So in Sioux Falls we apparently have a situation where one of the key special interests in town definitely has their ducks in a role with a candidate months before petitions can be taken out and with the serial contributors in place, as well.
However, on the other hand, things are so bad that our city leaders have had to place an “Open” sign out in front of City Hall to encourage greater citizen involvement, like something so crucial to any democratic process as running for office.
We could have a chicken and egg debate over who is to blame: Has the influx of special interest in city politics discouraged citizen participation into our political process or is the apparent public indifference to our local electoral process merely the political vacuum which has welcomed such blatant special interest overtake?
But special interest has always been a reality in all levels of government and no wonder the phrase …”You can’t fight city hall.” The real evil for our current political and electoral process at the local level seems to be the increasing indifference of many towards our political process as a whole, and why is this?
Could things be so good that there is a “Let them have it attitude?” I don’t think so. Have we become complacent to a benevolent dictator syndrome do to the rise of special interest and big money in our political system so we have given up, I don’t think so either.
The problem is that we have forgot what it means to be a citizen. We live in a world where if we find our nation at war only 2% of the population pay the price through service to our county. We find ourselves increasing living in a world were the destruction and even the functional destruction of middle class abilities and means is destroying our luxury of time to be involved, to care, and to feel involved. Also, 24/7 America has removed and is increasingly removing us from the structural requirements of the world around us through a lack of community sense, and allows us to live in our own world even if it is not a world generally liked or we are proud of…. Add the reality, that most of us are now of generations who have only lived in the post WW II era and our the children and now adults of the Vietnam, Watergate, 9/11, and continually declining middle class world brought on by the euphemisms of free trade, supply-side economics, and “New Democrats” and “Tea Party Republican” eras, you begin to understand why citizens have lost interest in our governments and in particular something so mundane as local government.
But what do we do about this. Well, I think we need to make social studies a more paramount part of our children’s educational processes. It is time we had teachers who taught government class who were more concerned about the subject than Friday night’s game. It is time as adults that we registered and voted. When your child turns 18 take them to the courthouse to register and if they are a male take them to the PO to pick a registration form. These ideas may seem simplistic or even rude, but they are necessary parts of our democratic society if we are going to continue as a democratic people.
Twelve years ago, I served as a juror in federal court. The following summer, while I had some vacation time. I and my children not only went town down for a change of pace and to have lunch, but i also took the time to take my 13 and 9 year olds at time to the federal courthouse to show them where Dad had spent his jury time. I showed them the courtroom and even the jury deliberation room. I am no better than any other parent, but parents need to start doing things like this again. If you can afford DisneyWorld maybe it would be a better idea to go to DC. If DisneyWorld is out of your price range, what about Mt. Rushmore instead of a cabin in Minnesota. And if you can’t afford a vacation and your two or three jobs are without vacation benefits, then maybe on an eventual day off you could spend sometime with your children in a self tour of our courthouses, city hall, and the library.
The greatest threat to our country, to the values we all claim to cling onto, our democratic (small “d”) values that is, are not threatened today by Isis, Putin, China, Iran, or even El Chapo. They are threaten by the fact that we have forgotten what it means to be a citizen, and parents need to start showing their kids what it means to be a citizen, that family values are not just a phrase championed by some politicians rather a reality determined by how comprehensive we are as parents and influential elders…
And in the meantime, parents need to run for office to further educate their children….