Overview Of Our Unscientific But Trendy “Readers Poll”

We are fascinated with the results of our unscientific but trendy “Readers Poll” we have had up for the past several days. Our readers chose Russell G. Lloyd, Sr as the mayor who did the best job, and that is not hard to understand. The handsome and extremely likable Republican was a big change from his three-term predecessor, Frank McDonald, Sr. who was a Democrat. We find it interesting that Mayor Frank McDonald, Sr was a close second choice for best mayor to the senior Mayor Lloyd.  Both men have sons who followed in their fathers’ footsteps.

Mayor McDonald,  Sr. created a smooth-running political machine, first as Vanderburgh County Sheriff for eight years and then as mayor for twelve years. The McDonald machine did little to conceal the practice of nepotism and  political patronage that was a hallmark of the tight grip he held on his party, and in later years spilled over into the Republican party. Those were the days of the “Two percent Club” when City Hall workers were expected to pledge 2% of their gross annual salaries to the party who held the department where they worked. It was a good idea for workers and all of their families to show up to help with re-election campaigns, too.  Bottom line, he was the mayor whom made USI a reality.

We wonder if some of the reader approval for the senior McDonald and Lloyd might be nostalgia for better days here in Evansville. Chrysler was gone, but we still had Whirlpool and the City’s budgets were balanced. Bonding capacity and capital improvements didn’t cause the anxiety among the electorate that they now do, and mot people just accepted that there were going to be some questionable governmental practices. It was politics, after all.

Our two least popular mayors come as no surprise. Democrat Mike Vandeveer followed Russ Lloyd Sr. in a seemingly competent administration, that worked to begin neighborhood and downtown revitalization efforts. Unfortunately, things were not what they appeared to be. It became necessary for Vandeveer to resign abruptly during his second term, under a cloud of allegations of serious impropriety on his part. The mayor who received the fewest votes was our current City Controller, Russell G. Lloyd Jr. We wonder if his dreams of a baseball stadium on the riverfront and the millions of dollars he wasted trying to make that happen are the sole reason for the distaste our readers have for his administration, or if some of it is because of the budgetary difficulties that Evansville is suffering at the hands of Lloyd Winnecke, his current boss.

The junior Mayor McDonald and Jonathon Weinzapfel finished in the middle of the pack. McDonald II presided over three reasonably uneventful terms and left office unscathed. Weinzapfel is most remembered for the construction of the Ford Center and the events leading up to the unsuccessful bid for office made by the late, well regarded Rick Davis.

We were most surprised at the dismal showing made by the present Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. Only 11% of CCO readers voted for him as the best Mayor of Evansville. That comes as a shock in light of the fact that he won a landslide victory over Gail Reicken just seven months ago. We wonder if this stems from a bad case of “buyer’s remorse” on the part of voters who have a growing concern about the City’s solvency, or if the victory is a reflection on the badly-run campaign waged by the Democrats and Mrs. Reicken, We suspect that it may be a combination of the two.

There is a trend that we see in the evaluation of each mayor’s performance, and that is the more fiscally conservative and “down to earth” the mayor, the better he is liked by our readers. We don’t believe those voting in our non-scientific poll are unusual. Those qualities seem to be more important to the opinions of of our readers than party affiliation or other qualities. Potential candidates for office, take note!

Todays “Readers Poll” question is:  Who do you feel was the most effective President of Evansville City Council in recent years?