Sioux Falls Municipal Election: Predictions

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After following this since last summer, this is my best guess;

MAYOR

1- Staggers

2- Huether

3- Brown

4- Peterson

5- Costello

6 – Ajda

At-Large (A)

1 – Hart

2 – Rolfing

3- Kooistra

4- Gaetze

5 – Ramirez

At-Large (B)

1- Jim Entenman

2- Michael Jones

SE District

1- Christensen

2- Aguilar

3- White

Central District

1- Stehly

2- Erpenbach

3- Milne

4- Hemmer

Mike Huether lands a zinger

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This was part of a full-page, color ad that the Huether campaign ran today in the Argus Leader;

This ad proves why Brown would be the ideal candidate to run against in a run-off. He has a long voting record of spend, spend, spend. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. If Vernon makes the runoff, I hope his competitor nails him on his spendaholic voting record.

Notice, NO mention of Staggers. Why? Because Staggers (not Huether) was the first candidate to oppose increasing taxes to build an events center.

Someone should tell the Gargoyle Leader Ed Board that only one person can be mayor

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‘I don’t have a problem with being the Gargoyle Leader’s second choice, or is it first choice, or is it pro-choice? I’m confused.’

Once again the ED Board doesn’t disappoint with their level of ignorance;

Sioux Falls would be well served with either Vernon Brown or Bill Peterson as its next mayor. In endorsing both candidates, in no particular order, the Argus Leader Editorial Board acknowledges that the strength of this year’s field means it’s all but certain there’ll be an April 27 runoff election.

Is this one of the dumbest things the AL Ed board has ever done? No, but it is up there. I said all along that they would endorse their golden boy, Bill Peterson, and I think that was their intentions all along. But once the polls came back, they came to the realization that Bill doesn’t have a snowball chance in Hell, so they had to mention Vernon.

Kinda reminds me of their stance on abortion. Oh, that’s right, they didn’t have one.

Kermit Staggers; The ONLY choice for Sioux Falls mayor

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After following city politics for almost 4 years now, I will say this, everyone running for mayor in 2010 have qualifications to be the next mayor, BUT, Kermit’s qualifications overshadow them. Before I tell you why I think Kermit is the ONLY choice for mayor, I want to touch on my concerns about the other candidates. Like I said, all the candidates have qualifications that would make them ‘decent’ mayors but here is where I have my doubts;

Janoct Ajda; While Janoct understands the concerns of the working man, he has no understanding the workings of government.

Bill Peterson; Besides Kermit, Bill is probably one of the most intelligent candidates running for office. But there are two things that worry me about Bill. He wrote the flawed and possibly unconstitutional city charter and he seems hellbent on pushing a personal agenda, whether the public approves or not.

Pat Costello; I like Pat’s views on fiscal responsibility, but is that campaign talk or the real deal? I would find a Pat Costello administration as a third term of Munson. Pat’s contributors bought him and he would do the bidding of the special interests of Sioux Falls.

Mike Huether; Mike used to be my second choice, but it seems lately he has been getting desperate, attacking Kermit for being a dissenter (which I think will only backfire). While I think Mike is a guy who wants to listen to the public I struggle with his past business experience and the fact that he worked in a VERY PRIVATE industry. Something that is lacking in Sioux Falls city government is transparency, something I think Mr. Huether would struggle with, since he hasn’t been that transparent about what he did as a VP at First Premier. He talks about business experience but doesn’t tell us what he did. A lot of political double-speak from Mr. Huether.

Vernon Brown; Oh, where to begin with Vernon? Vernon does have some attributes; He is likeable and has done some great work on behalf of the homeless. Vernon also is a working class joe who has climbed the ladder all by himself, and I will give him credit for that. But after that, I’m not sure what qualifies him to be mayor. He knows how to ratchet up the rhetoric, being a reporter for Stormland TV News probably helped him in that department. But my major concerns about Vernon are simple. He doesn’t take stands and often flip-flops on issues, just look at his city council voting record. He seems to be on the fence about government transparency. And one thing you can be certain about, Vernon will spend money on unneeded ‘supposed’ quality of life projects like it grows on trees. We don’t need another Munson.

Now to Kermit. As I outlined above, this is why I think Kermit is the ONLY choice for mayor. I am not gonna go into a long rant as to why I think Kermit is most qualified, I have been doing that for months, but I will say this about him;

• Extremely Intelligent

• Caring

• Citizen Advocate

• Fiscal Conservative

• Government Experience

• Transparent

• HONEST

I think his honesty says it all to me. He is the only candidate who has been honest and sometimes has given the public the ‘Ugly truth’. That worries people. But don’t believe the Munsonites and there constant, “The truth is negative – but lies are positive.” boloney. It’s time the citizens of Sioux Falls were told the truth.

We can’t fix what is broken, if we don’t know what is broken.

It’s time to fix what is broken in Sioux Falls, and improve what is already great. VOTE STAGGERS – APRIL 13TH.