Letter to the Editor by Laura Blackburn

Most years about this time, I start to feel a sense of anticipation and exhilaration. It isn’t because of the crisp fall air. I don’t like cold weather. No, it isn’t because of Halloween. I’ve never been a big fan of costumes and Jack O’Lanterns. My excitement stems from a politics geek’s anticipation of “the most wonderful day of the year” – Election Day. After all, it is the day that we have a chance to celebrate America with something far better than parades and fireworks, we get to VOTE. We have a voice in our future, and all we have to do is cast a ballot.

This year is no exception, but I feel like so much more is at stake for my hometown this time around. Always before, I had the sense that if my candidates won, great. If they didn’t there would always be another chance in four years. This time, I’m not so sure that Evansville will have another chance to “get it right.” Four years ago when Lloyd Winnecke narrowly beat the late Rick Davis, my first thought was that the voters had made a terrible mistake and they would clearly understand it very early-on into the Winnecke administration. Now, four years later, I truly do not believe that our great city can withstand four more years like the last four. I believe we will be on the verge of bankruptcy and we will have lost the great sense of community that has always made Evansville feel like “home.”

We’ve all seen how freely the tax payers’ money has been spent and our children’s futures mortgaged for a “value engineered” downtown hotel to serve phantom conventioneers. There is a medical school planned downtown at a cost of sixty million dollars, although it will not include the Ivy Tech students that would have comprised the bulk of the student body. Like the hotel, the cost stayed the same while the product we bought shrunk significantly. Those things, along with the dire financial straits we find the City in and the disregard those in power treat the struggles of everyday people with are all “old hat.”

Those issues speak to the judgement of the Mayor, but I am also concerned about the integrity of our current mayor. One of the things that alarm me most about the position we find ourselves in is that for the first time in Evansville history, a mayoral candidate has raised more than a million dollars for a campaign. Most of that money comes from outside of the city, and even from throughout the country. Those very generous donations are coming from individuals and businesses that want to do millions of dollars’ worth of business with this administration. It appears that the City of Evansville is on the radar of a lot of businesses that are willing to spend a lot of money to curry favor with our Mayor.

Another,  example of how willing Lloyd Winnecke is willing to compromise the well-being of our city for his own purposes is the way in which he attempting to used the heads of the non-profit organizations that lost public funding because of the financial mess he has created. Does he not understand that by enlisting them to “politic” for him, he is placing their 501 (c) (3) standing? When these people put their organizations into the political arena they stand to have their non-profit status revoked by the IRS. I hope that any CCO readers who find their votes being solicited through non-profits that they support will remind those doing the politicking that they are endangering the very existence of their organizations. I believe that they would make better use of their time looking for alternate sources of funding. The City can no longer afford to support them. The Mayor spent their funds on the hotel and raising his own property values.

I won’t deny that I am especially excited about one other, more positive historical aspect of this election, too. I confess that I am anxious to see if Evansville will elect its first woman mayor. The thing that would make the Gail Riecken’s victory next Tuesday even greater for me is not that a woman won, but a qualified woman of high moral character won. We just can’t give up on Evansville and let it go down into the maelstrom that is the Winnecke administration.

Sincerely

Laura Blackburn

Evansville

FOOTNOTE: This letter was posted without bias, option or editing.