The Commission candidates are now official. And there is no further chance to enter the campaign this year.
There are eight candidates. Two names that were previously mentioned never did declare candidacy. The two people who did not declare candidacy would have been terrible (one already has been terrible). Two of the people who declared candidacy are already also proven terrible. None of the other six people who declared candidacy has been involved in the Village in any way (well, one has slightly, and we'll get to him), and nothing is known about them (not to me, at least), so under normal circumstances, they would be last choices.
If the two people (Ginny O'Halpin and William Abreu) who did not declare candidacy are the "good news," and it's "bad news" that two terrible Commissioners and six complete unknowns and uninvolveds did declare candidacy, is the imbalance still "good news, bad news?" Or is it really all varying kinds of bad news?
I told you who (mercifully) didn't decide to run. If you want to know how merciful it is, William Abreu did run one cycle ago, and on the basis of absolutely nothing, including short residency here, no involvement with the Village, and no campaigning, he got a few hundred votes. I still can't figure that one out, except to assume that Village voters didn't/don't know what they're doing, intended blindly to vote for an incumbent named William Tudor, and simply either didn't know the last name, or carelessly voted for the wrong William. But really, it's a mystery. William Abreu, a few hundred votes? Not explainable in the universe I inhabit.
Dan Samaria and Judi Hamelburg are also somewhat inexplicably doing it again. They are both incumbents, and neither of them has contributed one thing of value. These are classic, and sadly not unknown, cases of running for the benefit of oneself, or to feel some sense of status, or imagined self-value or importance. Just an additional word about Dan Samaria. Dan has what are colloquially called "issues." Dan seems to know this, and he even explains that because his day job is as an exterminator, he thinks he has been excessively exposed to chemicals which he presumably concludes may have had a bad effect on his brain. Dan used to come across as deceptively and inexplicably focused. That's when he was getting lots of advice from Roxy and Chuck Ross and Bob and Janey Anderson. Then, he stopped consulting them, for who knows what reason, and he launched himself into some grossly dysfunctional and aimless orbit. It was last night that Dan missed a budget workshop (attending budget workshops is sort of essential for Commissioners) because he was babysitting his "grandchildren." These grandchildren are the children of someone who is not Dan's biological child, and it's unclear to me if he ever even adopted her. And because Dan is a Commissioner, the Village relies on him.
I have met Jonathan Groth a few times, because he's on the Foundation, and I had a return stint, this time as an alternate. Jonathan seems like a nice enough guy. Quiet, but nice enough. He doesn't offer much, but he's mostly there. That's the best it gets of the current crop of candidates.
The second best might be Mario Carozzi. Mario is like the rest of the other four candidates in that he has not been active in the Village in any way (so no reason to think he knows what are the salient issues, what is our history of having done or not done things, or how things work.) But the difference with Mario is that one person whose opinion I respect said Mario has listened in to Commission meetings, asks questions (of this one person whose opinion I respect), and might have opinions. Of course, opinions are not hard to come by, and it takes more than that.
The other four candidates are Veronica Amsler, Ivette Corredero, Veronica Olivera, and Maxwell Stiss. I know absolutely nothing about any of these people, except that they had to have been Village residents for at least one year to qualify. So I'll assume I know that about them.
Election Day is November 8. On that day, we will wind up with three of these eight people. They will join Mac Kennedy and Art Gonzalez. You will decide, by voting or by not voting, which three we'll get. In my opinion, it will help the Village greatly if we don't re-elect Dan Samaria or Judi Hamelburg. For me, the rest are pigs in pokes. Maybe they'll campaign, and if they do, it might become clear that some would somehow represent the Village, its residents, and its interests well. If they don't campaign, or if you don't get a chance to meet them, you can flip a coin. But whatever you do or don't do, we're getting three of these people.
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