I'm usually more or less a fan of Yael Abouhalkah at the Star -- even if I don't always agree with him, his thoughts are usually fairly well reasoned and he's great at defending his points of view in responding to emails.
But his column today, in my opinion, is a blatant attempt at trying to influence the upcoming mayoral election.
Today, he says that Alvin Brooks will "certainly" be among the final two candidates that will move on to the general election in March.
I'm not sure what Yael is basing his "certainty" on - -there have been no polls published about where people stand. Brooks has high name recognition, no doubt, but no all of it is positive. If you catch up on the local Blog scene, like BlogKC and Tonyskansascity, as well as chatboard forums like kcskyscrapers, young voters (who make up most of the people on these forums) don't think highly of Brooks...and these people do vote, as evidenced by the November light rail vote. Meanwhile, Brooks' "huge base of black voters" seldom turn out for major elections...let alone February elections.
Aboulhalka also states that Brooks is best known for his work on "crime-related issues" -- except that in year 6 and 7 of his tenure on the City Council, Kansas City has been at record levels for murders and other violent crimes. What has he accomplished on his crime-related issues? Meanwhile, the constituents in his district continue to live in extreme poverty and are under-educated because of the pathetic Kansas City School District.
Knowledgeable voters, who are the people who show up for February elections, get this stuff.
The November election in KC proved that Kansas City voters are sick of the status quo...and based on that, I expect a high vote count for Mark Funkhouser in the primary election in February.
I've been wrong before, and Brooks may very well move onto the general election, but I again am appalled by the Star's "My opinon = Certainty" mindset that is influencing an election based on opinions and not facts.
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