Congratulations to Ritchie Nordstrom for coming out as the top vote-getter in Rapid City's Ward 2 City Council election yesterday. He faces a run-off in two weeks against incumbent and second-place finisher Deb Hadcock.
Whichever way the run-off goes, Nordstrom also gets my congratulations for making wingnut heads explode. Last week the faux-family values cabal tried to sandbag Nordstrom's campaign with a pink flyer that reeked of homophobia. (As far as I can tell, Family Matters PAC does nothing but mail pink flyers.) Their guy, Steve Laurenti, got third. Hadcock defended Nordstrom and criticized the homophobe flyer, and she got second.
At least this month, in this race, it sounds like Rapid City voters are more interested in fighting potholes than the culture war. Take that, wingnuts!
It is not done yet. There is a runoff on the 28th of June. He needs to win that to get the council seat. It is positive news that he did have the most votes, but he needs to win one more election to get the seat.
Quite true. I am pleased that Ritchie will be fighting it out with another candidate who at least decried the pink flyer, not one who issued something insinuatingly similar.
This is great news of decency winning out over hate.
Well it worked for Jenna Haggar so maybe they thought it would work for them aswell?
Mike, you bring up "Jenna Haggar" and I guess I missed that whole story. By the way, this would not be the same "Jenna" that leaves comments on this blog would it?
http://madvilletimes.blogspot.com/2010/11/haggar-anti-abortion-ally-lies-with.html
Cory,
Perhaps you should urge the Madison city council to ban pink flyers in order to prevent Madison from becoming a Theocracy.
Does Madison have a Masonic lodge?
It's curious that you would talk of "homophobia," since I'm pretty sure no one was afraid of sameness in this election, or afraid of homosexuals for that matter. It does, however, seem that certain folks had a phobia about certain candidate positions becoming public knowledge, however. It's interesting that a candidate would claim to want to represent the voters, even as he seeks to keep on the down-low his position on an important issue that, unfortunately, does come before city government from time to time.
As I've said before, only in the liberal world is more information a bad thing. Of course, usually in the liberal world, more information exposes immoral attitudes, opinions and/or behaviors...which must be kept hidden from most voters to ensure electoral success because liberals haven't yet succeeded in corrupting the moral fiber of our society to the point that most voters will openly embrace an immoral agenda.
Did most of the voters embrace an immoral agenda in this case? Well, he only received 1/3 of the votes, so you could at best say only 1/3 of the voters embraced an immoral agenda--providing they all were aware of Nordstrom's embrace of the homosexual agenda.
In any event, it's never a bad thing (unless you're a liberal trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters) to have more information about a candidate's position on the issues. Thanks to the Family Matters PAC, voters can accept or reject the homosexual agenda with their eyes open--and answer to their Creator for their vote accordingly. It's hard to get better than that in a free society.
Bob I will pray for you!
Bob, I know what the homosexual agenda is having drafted most of it in my dreams of seeing you naked and you are usually more erudite in your skewed view of life on planet Earth; but, I confess to not knowing what the hell you are saying in your comment.
People don't vote on issues of sexuality in a city council race. It might work in a legislative race once in a while.
Steve! Glad to hear from you again. You know I advocate no government ban on free speech. Zach Lautenschlager, David Astin, and Bob Ellis are free to spew their one-note hateful rants just like the Westboro Baptist Church, neo-Nazis, and many other individuals whose thinking I find repugnant. The proper check is not government regulation but vigorous public scorn.
Masonic Lodge? There are still some Masons, but Madison keeps its secrets in the LAIC. There is, of course, a lovely and vacant Masonic temple right at the head of downtown that I'd love to buy and turn into a community cultural center. Know any investors who could help me out?