Sorry - it's taking me a while to get my blog up and running, especially since we are up and running with Mo! News from Camp Modena is all positive - there are 4 billboards up around town (and they are very handsome indeed), they are cutting media spots and having more fundraisers and parties than you can shake a stick at, and everywhere I go, Modena yard signs keep popping up in yards - not like those weedy Lucas signs, which populate several medians and rights of way - those puppies will be in the landfill after Public Works picks them up (unless Lucas' sister Miriam, who is on the Public Works committee, keeps them from doing their jobs. But surely not?)
About yard signs - like I tell everybody who asks me why Lucas has so many signs up - anybody can stick a sign on the side of the road. It's much harder to stick a sign in someone's yard. Pretty much every Modena sign you see is in someone's yard - that means a VOTER asked for it, and will be going to the polls to vote for Modena. Periodically, the Modena Crowd gets excited and puts a sign in a median someplace, and that's ok - but just keep in mind, when you see a sign, look where it is. That goes for A-Frames, especially - and I notice the only Lucas A-Frames so far are on his daycare center Headquarters. Signs are advertising, and that's what an underdog has to do - I think he's paying Quentin Tard a lot! - but Modena signs aren't just advertising - they're votes.
On the the forums. . . Last Saturday, my friend Mary was at a forum in Unionville with Modena and said it went very well. Lucas might have a lot of corrections policy experience, but it's pretty plain that when it comes to good ol' policing of the cops and robbers variety, he's never done it. I listened to his interview on the Telegraph over the weekend, and while he's told lots of prison wardens what to do, I doubt that he has ever made a traffic stop, arrested a robber, or even directed traffic, much less chased down drug dealers or done community based policing. I want someone who has actual experience as a COP to be my sheriff, because I don't think Sheriff is one of the jobs you can just walk into off the street. You have to know how to be a cop before you can be a Sheriff, I think. On the Job Training will not cut it - nor will time as an MP in the Army Reserves and National Guard.
That said, Mary noted that Lucas tried throughout the Unionville forum to be pleasant, polite and generous - completely in opposition to the loudmouthed, insulting, near-rabid foaming-at-the-mouth Scotty Shepherd at the NAACP's forum at City Hall the week before. (I saw that one in person, and on TV - he clearly has a personal ax to grind, and it has pushed him over the edge.) Shepherd's got more policing experience than Lucas, but if I had to choose between the two, Lucas appears to be a better candidate - or at least sane.
Neither of them, however, holds a candle to Modena. (I did say from the start that I was unashamedly Pro-Mo, right?) I'm unreservedly grateful to him and his deputies for the last 7 years of lower crime, innovation and hard work. That, and it is a good feeling to sleep safe in your beds at night!
About tonight: The Forum tonight is a 6 pm at Porter Ellis Community Center on Houston - it's open to all candidates in the area, and I am certain that it'll be packed. Come early for a good seat next to the folks in the Modena Tshirts! Mary might even give you a fan, in case it gets hot.
I expect Shepherd to come to this one - he blew off Unionville. Strangely enough, it was Bill Lucas who informed the crowd that "Scotty is out of town." Now, why would a Democratic challenger know - or care about - the location of the Republican challenger, or not use it to tell the audience, "I'm here and he's not - who cares about you?" OH, THAT'S RIGHT - I forgot: Lucas and Shepherd are in cahoots! That's why he knows where Shepherd is! (And that's why Shepherd's longtime friend Mickey Pearce gave Lucas $1000. . . The campaign cleverly misspelled his name, but that's Mickey Pearce, the same guy who just retired rather than face the music for allowing employees to claim overtime improperly. Gosh. I'll bet he doesn't like Modena at all. . . in which case, I doubt he's reading my blog!)
Need I mention, by the way, that this is all my opinion? Nobody tells me what to think, and I can do math about as well as the next person. Politics is fun - you read the paper, look at campaign disclosures, sniff around a bit, and poof - you can connect the dots, too.
Anyway, that's all for today - I'll let y'all know how the forum goes tonight. Also, at some point I will post about the two candidates interviews with the Telegraph - they are posted online and are quite interesting.
