Gee, Mr Ludeman, at least Frank Szollozi contributes and is involved with his web blog page and he isn't even running for mayor!
If your involvement with your web page is any indication of what we're going to endure with your committment to Toledo for the next 4 years, I'll be voting for a Democrat.
Would be nice to have a candidate that's committed to Toledo and it's citizens and is involved with it's concerns.
I will be awaiting your reply. You got 8 weeks. Good Luck.
I may be wrong, but that comma between "economy" and "and" isn't nessassary. Besides, with a quote like that as a mission statement, you'd think he was involved. I'm so not seeing it. The only person to blame is Rob. Well done, Rob!!!
What's up with Ludeman? Did he give up? I have called his campaign line TWICE and got no answer, left a message, got no reply. This has been a month ago! I emailed his campaign line TWICE. Got no reply! I am assuming he has given up!
CARTY sounds better each day!
I think even Ford has moved more than Ludeman these last couple of months!
Let's be realistic here. The "race" is now between Ford and Carty. Ludeman would be lucky to get 5% of the popular vote. As usual, since Democrats of some flavor dominate this so-called race, Democracy in general in Toledo is once again Missing In Action ... the same as Ludeman is, I'd imagine.
For laughs, take a gander at Bob Franz's comments in the TFP about Wilkowski. Toledoans are so mis-informed, I'm sure Wilky Boy will probably get as many votes (if he lasts) as Ludeman.
Democracy is not completely missing in action. Ron Ludeman is the only thing missing in action. The political and economic climate in Toledo is ripe for some with fresh ideas, regardless of party affiliation. I am new to this city, but I have done my homework. The people here are tired of a do nothing Democratic party with the albatross of the Unions weighing them down. The union cronies and their hypnotized members will always blindly vote Democratic, but the rest of the city was ripe for the picking and Ludeman has demolished the only good chance conservatives have had for years.
The bulk of the blame goes to Ludeman, but a lot of it must fall on Sally Perz. I have high hopes for her. But if Ludeman is the only thing the GOP has to throw out there, they don't deserve an office in One Government Center! Shame on the pitiful showing of the GOP.
The worst part is that once this opportunity passes, it won't come around again for a while. Whoever wins this election (I assume Carty by a landslide) will preside over a significant economic recovery in the next four years - due largely to policies already in place at the Federal level. Even though the Mayor will not deserve much of the credit, he will get it and the GOP will not have a chance in four years.
I actually hope I am wrong... but...
Rob (if you actually read this), I had high hopes and was ready to help. I called, emailed, called, emailed and got NO REPLY AT ALL. Toledo needs someone with fresh, innovative, creative ideas. I see nothing from you.
What "economic recovery"? Are businesses going to suddenly reverse course and flow back into Toledo from some nebulous assertion of actions done on the "Federal level"? (Don't even try the "tax cuts" myth -- businesses are taking their tax cuts and continuing to run offshore.) Are people just going to shrug off the excess payments that must be made good after the housing bubble pops (note: it already started to pop in 2003 in Toledo)?
Toledo's tax base is fleeing, and what remains is essentially based upon poor people in overpriced homes. I call them "poor" since they are embroiled in a housing bubble, have very little savings, and have no job security at all. Their debts are high and their capacity to pay is low. DUH! These people are POOR!
This is a slow but enormous disaster in the making. No policy from DC is going to halt that -- as if the solid corporate welfare from DC had any rational effect upon the common wealth at all.
No, Toledo is going to have a particularly tough 2006, but some outrageous cuts and shocks are going to hit in 2007. The motion vector for businesses is perpendicular to Toledo and directed away. Such a strong erosion of the tax base can only spell doom for city services, thus giving more impetus for businesses to leave.
As for the union angle ... gee, how many members do the unions have to lose before people stop blaming them like some boogeyman? This angle of yours is as tiresome as Limbaugh's chants about the Democrats. Here's a clue for you: in DC, the Democrats are assuredly OUT OF POWER. They have essentially ZERO effect on the current policy environment in DC. Similarly, with the implosion of union membership across the nation and in particular Toledo, the net effect is also essentially ZERO.
Now I don't deny that some of Toledo's spineless politicians kow-tow to the local unions to significant degrees. BUT ... that is just their reaction. The unions are steadily losing their ability to mobilize a voting bloc. The only way they have maintained otherwise-inexplicable vote power is that TOLEDOANS JUST DON'T VOTE in general. Out of lower turnouts, a shrinking vote bloc still has an effect (albeit temporary). That effect has masked the decline of union political power in the ballot box.
Carty OR Ford are almost 100% likely to win the mayor's "race". The truth is that the Dems have this election sewed up, which is what I complained about above: when the contest has already been decided by virtue of a single political philosophy, then Democracy in general has died. Both Ford and Carty represent the overspending style-meistering that has allowed Toledo's sustainable tax base to flee.
Look: Carty was mayor in a time of a much higher point of business presence in Toledo. This coincided with low interest rates, which compelled people to be remarkably free with money -- much to the end of foolish investment behavior. In such an environment, Carty's incredible incompetence could be masked. But that's not the environment he faces in the 2005-2009 timeframe. He faces a housing implosion. He faces increased energy prices. He faces the results of years of local infrastructure neglect. He faces up to 10000 more people fleeing Toledo. And he faces the decimation of the public school system under the viciousness of the Federal mandates.
As I've said on the website recallmayorford.com, Carty is going to end up in some critical council meeting in 2007, sobbing uncontrollably as he curls into a fetal position, unable to understand why the city has far, far less of an income stream to pay all the bills that will exist. As some sort of brainless salesman type, Carty is not equipped to understand reality itself, and is doubly unequipped to understand that hard-nosed fiscal discipline is the ONLY way to handle Toledo's vanished income sources. It can ONLY stand to reason that when your income drops, so must your expenses.
If Ludeman is actually the hard-nosed type that has the willpower to say "NO!" to every open palm that shows up at Government Center, then he's got my vote. I'd vote for him in such a fashion, even though it's next to impossible for him to win since at least 95% of the votes will be cast for Ford or Carty. I can't contribute to the farce being played out, to the denouement in the ballot box in November. I didn't vote for Bush or Gore, or Bush or Kerry, either. Being handed two candidates that are EXACTLY the same (for the critical issues of foreign relations and domestic economy) is the central disease that has eaten and killed American democracy.
So, again: Dave, what on Earth are you talking about? Don't you have anything to say that didn't already undergo test bounces in the Republican Echo Chamber?
Where the heck is Rob anyway. I just back from the Polish Festival on Lagrange Street, and I saw MANY political candidates doing some sort of campaigning (J'Foe and Con Dough Carty had their people out in droves). Rob Ludeman, of course, had no presence. Is Rob serious about being the mayor, or is he just treating this election like it is some kind of joke? Rob, where the h*ll are you?
Con Dough Carty made some derogatory remarks about you recently: calling you the South Toledo candidate while he's the "citywide candidate." Your other two candidates have responded to the potshots that Con Dough Carty has made against them, but you haven't yet? Are you going to take this (especially coming from a flawed, corrupt individual)? If I were in your shoes, I'd have responded to that pompous blowbag and put him in his place.
Did you here Ron with Bob France yesterday morning...
He says that he knows that in a compaign you ahve to "peek at the right time." I laughed out loud in my car when I heard him say that.
Hey Rob, to be able to "peek" you actually have to get started! I was a distance runners and I understand the need to peek at the right time. But I also know that if you peek when everyone else are laps ahead of you, your peeking doesn't do a bit of good!
I think you might need a new campaign consultant... Fritz Wenzel seems to be doing a great Job for his candidate in Hamilton County, maybe you need soem advice from him!
