  One would think that by now candidates on the ballot for the upcoming General election would be totally engaged in talking about about governmental issues that effect our daily lives.  To date only a few candidates are even on the political radar.
  We are extremely disappointed in the way the Mayoral race has been conducted so far.  Right now is seems like both candidates are waiting to see who blinks first before responding.  We understand that some of the focus has been on raising money to support an aggressive marketing campaign.  However, one would think by now some sort of campaign theme would have merged.
  As a sitting Mayor, Winnecke has taken advantage of every political opportunity available to him.  Mayor Winnecke’s political strategy has been simple at this point. He makes well timed political appointments to City Boards and Commissions. He gives political patronage job appointments to his favorite Democrats.  He looks for every opportunity to continue to award his union buddies with City construction contracts in order to stay in their good graces.  He attends every public event available so to gather additional support for his re-election bid.  He jumps in front of every TV camera possible to keep his face in the public eye.  He has been extremely masterful in avoiding pointed questions concerning the Downtown Convention Hotel and IU Medical School alleged construction cost overruns.  The only evident strategy that is back firing on his campaign is that he allows members of his staff to attack anyone who questions his authority or decisions.  Once the campaign began in earnest you can expect the Mayor to attack Mrs. Riecken past voting records while she been in public office. This alone should prove to be very interesting in itself.
 We expect Mayoral candidate Gail Riecken will take the Mayor to task about issues that affect the lives of everyday taxpayers and voters of this community.  We predict she will address the way some city department heads insult and verbally attack citizens that attempt to seek answers about city issues during City Council meetings.  We expect candidate Riecken will take to task the financial data that City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. releases to the public on a monthly basis concerning the financial condition of the our city.  Riecken biggest challenge will be to take this information and break it down so the average citizen will understand it.  If Candidate Riecken can achieve this task it will immediately  jump start her campaign to force meaningful public debate concerning the true financial status of our city.  We expect she won’t forget issues concerning  our streets, sidewalks, parks, water and sewers system are in major disrepair and the housing blight problems.Â
  If she doesn’t have enough issues to discuss between her and the Mayor she could question the wisdom of his spending $15 million dollars on a bike trail project in the blighted North Main street area.  We also wonder how she will address the proposed Robert’s Park and Mesker Park Ampertheather projects?  Of course, the Grand Daddy of all political issues is the political donations the Mayor receives from Contractors, Consultants and Vendors that do business with the City.
  It’s time for the Mayoral campaign to begin in earnest!
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You are not going to hear anything of substance on these issue from either candidates unless you force the questions.
I believe once Ms. Riecken begins her campaign in earnest, her 26 years in politics will have enough big targets in them for the Winnecke campaign to aim at, which will keep her constantly on the defensive and not allow for anything substantial to be forthcoming as far as bettering Evansville for the citizenry.
She’s a career politician who has only won in Democrat controlled districts and he is a master panderer to everyone, especially the unions, so it will be smear and more smear from each side.
Evansville will not be revived however the outcome of the mayoral race because the same people will be on the city council.
Why would it surprise anyone that former mayor Weinzapfel worked so hard to get Lloyd Winnecke elected mayor? Weinzapfel and the rest of his insiders knew what was coming after the spending binge he was on for years. What person in his right mind would want to walk into a situation where all the bills of the previous administration were going to come due on your watch, and poor revenue planning guaranteed that insufficient funds would be available to cover the debt run up?
The wheels came off the economy in 2007 while Weinzapfel was still in the mayor’s chair. It appears that instead of taking measures to protect Evansville citizens from being saddled with crippling municipal debt, he did just the opposite and INCREASED the city’s debt load in what was no doubt an effort to take care of the organized labor members and the business cronies who put him in office.
Winnecke, willing it seems, was led like a lamb to the slaughter in filing for the race for mayor. One wonders to this day if he knows what happened. The crux of the whole thing is that instead of putting the blame where a lot of it belongs, the local media will pin it all on Winnecke and the Republican party.
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