Mayor's Race Both Negative and Cynical

If you came here looking for my opinion of the final mayoral candidates' forum at the Richardson Civic Center on Wednesday, you're out of luck. I need time to figure out what my opinions are. In the meantime, here are further thoughts on the downward spiral of the campaign so far.

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On Tuesday, I deplored how the Richardson mayor's race has turned personal and negative. Today, I add cynical.

Do you want a mayor who is beholden to unions and special interests?

Source: Laura Maczka.

That's a line used by Laura Maczka in her closing statement during the recent candidate forum at Mohawk Elementary School. She was referring to the endorsement of Amir Omar by the Richardson Fraternal Order of Police, the Richardson Firefighters Association, and the MetroTex Association of Realtors. But Maczka didn't name them. She didn't say firefighters, police and realtors. She said "unions" and "special interests." Given that "unions" are reviled in Texas and "special interests" reviled everywhere, it's probably good politics. It's as if Maczka expected her audience to shudder a little and silently pray, "No!"

After the jump, why it's so deeply cynical.

Would-Be Mayors Overplay Their Hands

Early in the Richardson mayoral election campaign, Amir Omar overplayed his hand by accusing Laura Maczka of "leading the charge" against direct election of the mayor. Instead of having to defend her votes to kill talk of direct election of the mayor for the rest of the council term, she was able to change the conversation to whether or not she was the "leader" of the anti-change majority on the council. Arguably, she was not. Inattentive voters might have dismissed the whole flap as a "he said, she said" argument. Omar might have scored points, but Maczka kept the damage to a minimum.

Now, it's Laura Maczka and the Richardson Coalition PAC who have overplayed their hand. After the jump, opening the books on Amir Omar.

Head Games (2012)

IMDB

Head Games (2012): Exposé of concussions in sport: football, hockey, even soccer. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to play football. A-

Mayoral Race to the Bottom

Yesterday, I deplored that the Richardson mayor's race is turning into a race to the bottom. Both of the candidates' closing remarks at the Mohawk Elementary forum turned personal and negative.

Omar accused Maczka of accomplishing nothing during her term on council, of putting her service on city council "on cruise control" for two years waiting to become mayor.

Maczka accused Omar of having his eye on the mayor's seat for at least two years; of being "beholden to unions and special interests"; of being more a "community organizer" than a president, er, mayor; of having an approach to governing of "ready, fire, aim."

So much for running positive, uplifting campaigns. After the jump, other examples of both candidates and their supporters trying to ruin their opponents' reputations, and as a result, risking ruin of their own.

#@!% Comments

I've switched The Wheel over to the newly available Google+ commenting system. There are some advantages, but there are disadvantages as well. For one, the "Recent Comments" widget is broken. For another, the comment count at the bottom of blog posts is broken. For a third, you have to have a Google+ account to comment (but if you have a Google account, adding Google+ is easy). I'm sticking with the new system, in expectation that Google will eventually get these shortcomings worked out. But in the meantime, beware.

Update: I've switched back. See the comments for why.