GAIL RIECKEN RESPONDES TO COURIER AND PRESS ENDORSEMENT OF WINNECKE

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In their endorsement of Mayor Winnecke for 4 more years as Mayor, the Courier & Press described me as a “picture of negativity”.  For once, the Courier & Press is right.

This is not the campaign I wanted to run, however, I feel it is my duty to inform the public of the dangers we face if we do not have a change in leadership.

The Mayor is not willing to admit to the sad state of financial affairs of our city, nor is he willing to fix it, so it is my duty to do so.

Mayor Winnecke won’t talk about the General Fund reserves depleting from $4 million to $300,000, so I will.

Mayor Winnecke won’t talk about our city’s half a billion dollars of debt that continues to rise, so I must.

Mayor Winnecke won’t talk about the rising crime rate in our city, so that obligation falls to me.

Mayor Winnecke won’t talk about the bad deals he’s made for the city, whether it be Earth Care, or massively subsidizing the downtown hotel with taxpayer dollars, or trying to deny taxpayers their homestead tax credit, so it is my responsibility to do so.

I have made all of these points in the numerous debates, forums, and joint appearances throughout this campaign, and Mayor Winnecke has not once refuted these points; because he can’t.

Negativity is not the way I wanted to run this campaign, however, I feel it is my duty to make sure you know the truth; that you know the facts of where the city is, and where we are headed.

The choices in this election couldn’t be clearer; Change vs More of the same.

I want to be Mayor of Evansville so I can meet the challenges before us.

I want to bring more transparency and accountability to the Mayor’s office by ensuring that you, the public, know what is going on in my administration and where your tax dollars are going.

I will foster an environment that brings in new businesses and jobs, and helps those existing companies expand.

I will work to ensure our citizens feel safe in their own neighborhoods.

I want to focus on improvements in the entire city, our parks, our streets, our sidewalks, and yes, our sewers.

To me, I see problems as opportunities. Let’s solve them together, and let’s make Evansville better together.

I look forward to serving as your next Mayor, and would appreciate your vote on November 3rd.

Sincerely,

Gail Riecken

Candidate For the Mayor of Evansville

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27 COMMENTS

  2. So the CP wheenied for Winnecke. I doubt that feather weight rag has much impact.

    • Who will win the mayoral race?
      Lloyd Winnecke 20.86% (377 votes)

      Gail Riecken 78.25% (1,414 votes)

      At 6:30AM

      • That poll makes me feel better about Evansville than I have in a long, long time. I realize that the question is “Who will win…”, not “Who will you vote for?”, but in some ways it is an even better reflection of the rather quiet enthusiasm that I have felt from the residents of the City for Gail’s candidacy.

        I found it interesting that the most avid pro-Whiney posters on the ECP site are NOT residents of Evansville, and will not be able to vote for their guy. The funders of his campaign seem to be latter-day carpetbaggers who want to do business with the City and his loudest supporters are out-of -county folks who want to have a cool entertainment scene nearby that they don’t have to support with their low taxes.

        Bravo to Gail for telling it like it is. The sensible folks are listening, because she has a history of steering us in the right direction. I have always been an advocate of reality-based political campaigns and that is what she is running.

        • Martha –
          The poll is part of the article endorsing Whiney in the online edition of Courier. You have to vote in order to see the current standings. After you vote the first time, if you want to check the standings you will need to “vote” again. A notice that you have already voted and your vote will not be counted again comes up, and then you can see the current standings.

  3. Thank you Gail , you shall have my vote
    I’m tired of being lied to by our last several administrations

      • Has Gail ever been Governor or had all of the votes in the legislature? One legislator can’t “balance the budget”, but you know that. If you are reduced to asking such pathetically stupid questions to defend your guy, maybe you should just give up.

    • But he is, and while the voters may not be yelling about it, they are acting on the fact at the ballot box!

  5. The C&P, in its fawning endorsement of Lawless Winnecke, said something like he was “energized to take on the combined sewers”.

    Really ? Does kicking the can down the road = ‘energized’ ?

    • I think it means he’s been stoked with broccoli and spoiled chicken and is fully prepared to crap on Evansville some more.

  6. After witnessing what happened in the last Evansville Common Council public meeting, how could anyone NOT understand that there are “unseen” powers that control politics in Evansville. Those same powers control the local newspaper, hell, Jack Pate is a member of their committee. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knew the newspaper was going to endorse the current over-spender-in-chief. I predict his pump priming will lead Evansville into Bankruptcy during his next administration.

  7. An open letter to Gail Riecken:

    Gail,

    If you win, I hope you bring positive change for the taxpayers. I hope that you can create an atmosphere where high profile businesses (bringing high paying jobs) want to locate here.

    If you win, I hope that you will solve the problems of increasing crime, decreasing standard of living, and the overall decline of Evansville.

    If you win, I hope your administration will not be the same disaster that the previous 3 administrations were.

    If Evansville’s leadership wasn’t so corrupted, we would have the opportunity for the taxpayers to be prosperous as well as the leadership. Evansville could be a great place to live. If you win, I hope it won’t be business as usual.

    Sincerely yours,
    A taxpayer who wants to see Evansville become a great place to live.

  8. What did she do as a State Representative? What bills did she sponsor or co sponsor? What is her proudest achievement at the State House?

    • Without doing some research that I don’t have time to do at the moment, I can’t answer that. I can tell you that during a lifetime of devoted service to those who were not born to the privilege she was, she has worked tirelessly. The co-founding of the Ark Crisis Nursery (Now the Ark Crisis Center) alone is enough to win my respect and my vote.
      She didn’t stop there though. She has been her husband Ron’s best friend and partner for 47 years of a marriage unscathed by scandal and they are the parents of loving and devoted daughters and grandchildren. Together, they have run successful businesses and lives. That speaks volumes to her character. She showed her own determination to make Old Downtown a safer place to live for not just her own family, but for all families. She and I were a part of a group of young mothers living in the downtown, who took to the streets pushing strollers and letting the Johns, the prostitutes, the drug users and their customers know that we were there and not going anywhere, so they needed to move elsewhere.

      In the beginning, we had different political affiliations, but the late beloved Betty Knight Smith brought me on board with the party where I really belonged. Shortly afterward, Gail and I were in opposing Democratic factions when she sought to fill a vacated seat on City Council. I stood by my mentor’s (BKS) choice for the seat, Betty Lou Jarboe, who wound up getting the seat.

      My point in all of this is not just a stroll down memory lane. It is to let everyone who reads this see that while Gail and I not always seen eye-to-eye politically, she is the kind of person that I respect and believe that she respects my efforts because we have both always had the best interests of our families and our city at heart in our political activities. I expect we may again see some issues differently in the future, but I will respect and support her efforts because I know she is a woman of good judgment and strong morals who will always do her best for Evansville. She is not someone who feigns listening to the people when she is only hearing high-powered donors and those who believe themselves to be the “social elite.” She is the right prescription for what ails Evansville.

        • Martha: But they do need drastically to remove that pig weaver as well. Hes little more than a drunken, or high jerk. I would hate to be under that example of poor governance, weavers a female abusing pig. That’s all that can be concluded by his lousy behavior.
          Get rid of the pig, hes not helping the citizens,the creep must be on a string, because hes always strung out. A pig on steroids and a sexual predator on a slightly different thread than that serial child molester they just outed.

  9. I see the C&P has dropped the endorsement and poll from the front page.
    Gail is dropping back but still hold a commanding lead.
    Lloyd Winnecke 23.7% (453 votes)

    Gail Riecken 75.41% (1,441 votes)

    Steve “Woz” Wozniak 0.89% (17 votes)

    Total Votes: 1,911
    as of 12PM

    • If that poll has been up for a day or so I’d deem the above numbers a reasonable snapshot and call it done. If it skews mightily towards Winnecke in the next hours it will show that it took the department heads a day or so to job-whip their underlings, even the ones who took Friday off, to do their duty.

      Regardless of the validity of any poll, Winnecke is running scared. He looks beat, his internal polling gnawing at him like a rat. His attempt to sit on the Schriber matter blew up in his face. He has no record worthy of running on, at this point he can only continue to lie and hope enough people believe him to return him to office.

  10. That CP endorsement has got to hurt Winnecke. Even with the reaching and frustrated attempt to come up with something positive about the little fella, it fell flat. It was bad enough that it could cause their subscriber to bolt.

    That paper is now in a constant state of ‘for sale’. Its next owner should euthanize it. In the interim they should hire an actual editor so it could march to its end without having to hear the snickering that attends Ethridge’s columns. In his attempt to defend the miscreants in the Winnecke/Schriber Sex Scandal and Ensuing Cover-Up the CP editor mentioned that he too graduated from Central High School in 197? and didn’t personally hear any of the rumors that were apparently rife at that time about the principals in the scandal and cover-up. He should have stuck with reporting softball scores.

    Remember when you cast your vote that if Lloyd Winnecke and his secretive handlers had gotten their way you’d have never heard of the serial rape of that child by Winnecke’s hand picked council candidate and ticketmate. They were going to sit on it at least until after the election, maybe forever. Schriber would be on the glidepath to a council seat. Winnecke would still be playing dress up at every opportunity and pledging future city revenue to whatever goofy scheme some developer that preys on the weak puts in his mind. Also, if Winnecke and his handlers had their way he’d have given Ken Haney 5 million dollars instead of ‘only’ $200,000. Free money, courtesy of Evansville’s gullible and failed mayor, Lloyd Winnecke.

    We have an opportunity to make November 3rd a corrective election. It is vital for Evansville’s future that we do so. Lloyd Winnecke has failed as mayor and his failure must not be rewarded with a 2nd term.

  11. Gail,

    How come you’re deleting questions from your facebook posts? We’ve watched many, many thoughtful questions posted and deleted when the answer won’t favor your candidacy. If you’re not willing to speak with us now I’m guessing you won’t speak to us if you’re elected.

    Terrible way to try and get into office. You’re not fooling anyone.

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