April 14, 2009

Where are the candidates?

Aside from Mayor Art Ward and the city councilors who showed up, there were only two announced municipal candidates in attendance at tonight's City Council meeting.
And one of them took the occasion to pull out of the race.
Independent Mark Blaschke, who lost badly two years in a 2nd District bid, said health concerns forced him to pull out this time around.
The only other contender to make an appearance was Kate Matthews, a Democrat aiming for a 3rd District seat.
Members of both parties are wondering what's happened to Ken Johnson, the Republican running for mayor. He hasn't been seen in weeks at City Hall.
Among possible candidates, Democrat Tom Ragaini was there tonight. He might run for a council seat.
But it sure doesn't look like an election year yet.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

28 comments:

arf said...

other than the candidates whom you mentioned, most of us have no idea what the other announced, formally or informally, candidates look like - should give us voters a great insight as to what they will do if ever elected.
who is this boob in forestville who knows about business, budgets and everything else associated with getting us out of this recession?
probably have a better shot trying to "paper-train" OBama's new dog.

Richard P. Scarola said...

I plan to be in attendance for every city council election from this point forward. I got hit with a bad round of pneumonia at the end of last week and between the antibiotics and this lingering perpetual cough, I'd really rather not be around anyone. Seriously, this cough I develop gets so bad that even what the doctor is giving me is not working. However, in the mean time as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I have printed the budget and have spent at least 2 hours a night combing through it. I have been working hard on my platform concerning at lot of the stuff that I am reading about the money that is getting wasted in Rockwell Park, Kern park, the Main St. Streetscape and all the various places that we can save money to better maintain our roads which is more of a priority for me than a Bath house or filling a Lagoon that nobody will be able to swim in. I am also in agreement that if someone gets injured, all it will take is one smart lawyer to find a loophole in the city's negligence and the tax payers are going to get smacked for not paving these roads. Maybe at that point someone will say "Geez maybe a couple million to fill a Lagoon wasn't such a great idea after all and the money could have been spent elsewhere and for better use. Today being tax day, how fitting to reflect on how brilliant the Founding Fathers were in establishing the Constitution of this great nation. So, while your butt is going back and forth to work to bust your butt for your money to be spent and abused the way this City abuses it remember the Constitution was meant to be an "ABSOLUTE" document, not the document that it has so badly been perverted into today. HAPPY TEA PARTY DAY!. All the great Patriots that put their lives on the line for their beliefs have to be absolutely ashamed at what this Government, State and Local have turned into. I look forward to meeting everyone soon!... Thanks, Richard

Anonymous said...

Richard, a poor excuse is always better than none.

boring said...

Richard, keep blogging, your lack of knowledge is only becoming more and more obvious. how 'bout expounding on how the city is able to use the rockwell park and main street monies when they are not monies within the budgetary process.
thank you for not coughing on us but please don't try to choke city government with unsupported rhetoric.

Bad first impression said...

I plan
I got
I'd really
I develop
I mentioned
my earlier
I have
I have
I am
I am
I look

Mr. Scarola, you are a VERY self-absorbed individual. Before you plan on running for office, you'd better think about putting a few more we's, ours, us and yours in your speeches, or the only one you'll be preaching to is yourself!

Anonymous said...

Richard: As a former councilman, my advice to you (and any other potential candidate) is to get the agenda and sit in the audience of the monthly meetings of the Public Works Board, Parks Board, Fire Board, Board of Finance, etc. instead of the City Council meetings. Council meetings are kibuki theater. It's at the major board meetings where the real decisions get made (i.e., where the money gets spent). The council just rubber stamps it.

Anonymous said...

Seems our candidates haven't got much to say (other than name calling, criticisim, and insults). No wonder they don't show up!

proof said...

2:06 PM - now we can see the reason that you are a FORMER councilman.

Anonymous said...

None of them can really start campaigning for another few months, whenever the respective parties name their candidates and if I were one of them, I wouldnt want to offer help to the councilmen or mayor..they need to clean their own mess up and if they can't we should clean our mess up by voting them out.

Anonymous said...

in all fairness, it should be noted that Terry Parker, the other dem third district council candidate, regularly attends city meetings. i believe he and his wife happen to be out of town this week celebrating their 25th anniversary. that's not a bad excuse to miss the shortest council meeting in as long as anyone can remember! just a thought.

Anonymous said...

the constitution as an "absolute" document??? what does that even mean?

Anonymous said...

"None of them can really start campaigning for another few months"

No, but they could roll up their sleeves and get to work now. They're not helping the mayor or the city council...they're SUPPOSED to be helping Bristol. They obviously have nothing to offer!

Anonymous said...

3:16 pm - And my guess is you never were, so who cares what you think?

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...

Mr. Scarola -

In honor of tax day I must ask if you did any tea-baggin' with your fellow patriots?

losers said...

so what are ken johnson and the city council candidates, both democrats and republicans, going to do, ask the people to believe that this recession just started?
I f they have ways to better the city, step up and contribute now.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like having a humongous ego must be a prerequisite for being on the city council.

Anonymous said...

Merge Dept Heads at city hall can be done, for instance Public works ,parks. 4 day work week or 36hrs a week,Engineering is awfully fat,bldg dept -bldg is down.

Anonymous said...

Richard stick to what you know????. By the way i live next to Rockwell park you lost my vote.

Tsk, tsk said...

9:25 PM - TSK, TSK, is poopsie's ego bruised?

not said...

9:38AM - way to go Richard, after they badger you to show up at city council meetings, you volunteer to sacrifice the time to attend (6)whole meetings prior to election; are you saying that should provide you with all of the brain power to make decisions for me? give me a break, I am not that dumb.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm, where oh where can Kenny be??? Guess he must have had better things to do...

hopeless said...

3:20 pm - and as soon as kenny identifies whatever it is that he is doing, he will scream and holler it to us in the form of an election release.
can't wait for that or my stock portfolio to dwindle any further.

Anonymous said...

3:20, Yup, he's busy blogging. Coming up with all the negativity, insults and criticism must take a lot of time.

Tim Gamache said...

proof: 2:06 comments were for the most part quite correct.If you were to attend the meetings mentioned,you would learn that to be true.I might add if you're going to "take cheap shots",at least show enough stones to sign your real name.

hide, no one will seek said...

but then "proof" were have to publicly demonstrate their lack of knowledge instead of us just "ass"uming that it as a result of trying to fool all of us anonymously.

Anonymous said...

WHOS TIM G

knot said...

who is 7:06? anybody care?

Anonymous said...

Way to go Bristolites. Attack everyone that runs for office. That's a great way to encourage citizens to get involved. How about we try to have a dialogue about issues? Obviously these people must care or they wouldn't be putting themselves out there. I remember after 9/11 that we realized how much we cared about each other and our country. How about we get back to respecting each other and listening to others ideas instead of slamming them?