Yes! Weekly has revealed its Greensboro City Council endorsements.
For starters, they endorse Joel Landau for an at-large seat, even though he didn’t make the primary cut:
Landau finished seventh out of 13 candidates for an at-large seat, but only the top six qualified for the runoff. That puts Landau – a popular candidate victimized by low voter turnout – out of the official running.
Landau, undaunted, is campaigning as a write-in candidate, a particularly risky maneuver given the county’s electronic voting system, which makes writing a candidate in a bit of a hassle (see sidebar). But we’re backing our guy, just like we did in 2005.
Here’s why: Landau organized the effort to add Greensboro to a list of cities fighting global warming. He successfully lobbied city management to add consent agenda items to the materials available online. He convinced the housing department to close a loophole that allowed landlords to delay making repairs.
Yeah, I’d say running as a write-in candidate is a risky maneuver, especially after voters have already said no. Give me a break. How about this — Landau’s ideas just didn’t inspire hordes of supporters to rush the polls. They probably had something better to do that day, like get a haircut, take out the garbage, walk the dog. I guess those of us who bothered to vote in the primary just weren’t smart enough to grasp Landau’s vision for Greensboro.
Then there’s this interesting viewpoint in their endorsement of District 5 incumbent Sandy Carmany over challenger Trudy Wade:
Wade has skillfully exploited the subtle racism of constituents who want to see City Manager Mitchell Johnson punished for holding former police Chief David Wray accountable for the treatment of black officers and others outside the dominant clique in the Greensboro Police Department. Wade’s campaigning on this issue smacks of pandering and political opportunism. We’ll stick with Sandy.
There you have it. That’s what the staff of Yes!Weekly thinks about those of us out there frustrated by the city’s insistence that we believe information that has not yet been released to the public.
Just what we want from a local alt-weekly: condescending, elitist crap.
