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 this page generated 13.11.24 00:36 CST (@316 .beats) Follow @CRZ |
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| 5.9.13 22:23 | | 61 DAYS TO ELECTION DAY - MAYORAL CANDIDATE #7: MARK V. ANDERSON (SIMPLIFY GOVERNMENT) Wow, Mark's "personal information" writes my first paragraph for me: "Mark V Anderson, 56, is a corporate tax accountant and CPA, with a BSB in Accounting and a Masters in Business Taxation, both from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He is married with two children. He lives in Bancroft neighborhood." I probably would have added a "the" (or taken out the "neighborhood") in the last sentence, but that's almost exactly what I would have typed if I'd found the info across several other pages. Thanks, Mark! I wish you'd told us what the "V." stands for, but I can't have everything. Like he did for me just now, Anderson is trying to save a lot of people a lot of time - his biggest idea is streamlining the city's licensing process and he thinks 150 different licenses may be too many. He may have a point. While he's trying to get the city's regulatory action slashed, he'd also like to slash the city budget and encourages you to go check out the latest budget so you can find your own things to cut. Hmmm, he almost sounds...libertarian! This is confirmed when you get deep into his policy page, where he mentions that the police should stop wasting their time on "victimless crimes" such as gambling, drugs and prostitution. Wow! In short, he's done everything to put forward a libertarian philosophy on his website - yet he doesn't use the "L" word a single time. I would almost say that's intentional, but I'm not sure it's the politically wise move. (By the way, his website design looks like it could have come straight out of 1995 - which ALSO isn't a bad thing; my own site looked like that for years.) This appears to be his first run for office. The conspiracy theorist in me had thought someone had put him up to confuse voters who might want to come out for Mark Andrew, but I changed my mind after discovering that he actually made his announcement on the E-Democracy list back in June. (I...made my announcement on Twitter. I should probably post on the E-Democracy list sooner or later.) He filed on the second day of the filing period. I honestly can't tell you if I'd be a better mayor than this guy or not. So far, he's definitely the closest candidate to me in terms of positions take, so it probably won't surprise you that I think he'd make a fine mayor who would very quickly become frustrated with just how little effect he'd find out he actually would HAVE as mayor. Am I right or wrong? It's YOUR vote! NEXT: If ya smell.... |