If you didn’t get your political campaigning fill with the federal election, you are in luck.
There are so far three contenders for the mayor’s chair — current mayor Kerry Cook, Walt Cobb, and Scott Nelson — the latter of whom announced Tuesday he wants his old job back.
All current candidates have been elected mayors in the past, and unless another face enters the arena one of them will become mayor again.
This will make for an interesting four or so months, as each will have to stand behind their records and previous decisions and run against well-seasoned politicians who know how the political game of spin works. Future debates will undoubtedly prove interesting, and all of us will need to be on our toes to cut through that spin to decipher fact from rhetoric so we can make an informed decision on who we want leading this community.
The economy, fiscal responsibility, transparency and crime will likely rule a large portion of those debates, though there are obviously many other issues each candidate will want to or have to address.
This silly season will provide us residents with an opportunity to hold these politicians to task — did they keep their promises when they made them the first time? Can we believe them this time?
It will also be up to us to decide who was responsible for various outcomes, good or bad, as it’s possible there could be ample finger pointing going on — something which usually takes place during election races. Often all we have is the word of politicians, but in this case we have history — a fact that all three candidates will need to remember during their election campaigns.