Mayor Lampke?

Here's where I get to start trying to fulfill one of my New Year's Resolutions. I wrote a while back about the musical chairs going on in Bexley's city government, including the strong possibility that Mayor David Madison would retire. Well, we have our first candidate - Council Member Matt Lampke.

Lampke made news last week by NOT being promoted to council president when Helen MacMurray stepped down from that position:

The president's chair usually goes to the sitting finance and judiciary committee chairperson, currently Matt Lampke. But several members said that because Mac Murray is leaving in the middle of a term and because the finance committee has a lot of issues to deal with, it would be best if Masser were to take over instead of Lampke...

... "You can say it," Lampke quipped, "I'm indispensable."

Three days later, the Matt Lampke for Mayor website was launched. The site lists his qualifications, etc. and has forms for volunteers and donors. It also has a list of personal endorsements. As of this writing, the page is a little misleading. It has a heading for "mayor," then a heading for "city council," then a list of people who have given personal endorsements. This list includes current mayor David Madison. It's possible that Mr. Madison is already endorsing a potential successor in this race, but I'd like to see that made more explicit if it's true. If it's actually the case that Mr. Lampke has received no endorsements yet in his mayoral run, it might behoove him to take the page down until he has a few and the categories can be clearly separated.

If it seems like I'm less than enthusiastic about this run, well, that's because I am. The tag line of this blog contains the words "Democratic Stronghold," and Mr. Lampke is a registered Republican. He's easily qualified to be mayor, committed to the community, and partisanship plays little role in the day-to-day operations of a small city, so at this point I have no reason to take shots at the man. I would, however, prefer that a city whose residency is overwhelmingly Democratic be run by Democrats.

(numbers from 2006 Primary)

As per my usual policy, if I take sides in a race, it will be the side of the Democrat. If I don't want to support a particular Democrat, I'll keep my mouth (predominantly) shut. If you are a qualified Democrat, and you'd like to see me take sides, or if you would like to comment confidentially on the race, drop me a line at bluebexleyATgmailDOTcom.

If you would like to comment publicly, please do so using the comments link below. I do ask that you make up a name rather than posting as "anonymous" if you prefer not to use your (real) name.