A few days ago one of Gary’s friends, who supports Mayor Meeker, took the time to write Talking About Politics about a blog I did criticizing the mayor’s runaway spending. (See Gary’s blog 06/05/06.) Gary’s friend didn’t exactly defend the mayor’s spending (except for his Lite-Rail boondoggle). Instead he said politically it didn’t matter because Meeker’s most likely Republican opponent (he didn’t say who that is) in the next election voted for the same spending.

Well, yes, he’s right, if Democrats get to pick the Republican candidate who runs against Meeker that will solve the mayor’s problems politically. But what if Republicans nominate someone like Tom Fetzer?

Gary’s friend also disagreed with Gary (not with me), warning that Mayor Meeker has ignored parts of Raleigh “away from downtown.” But I don’t recall any Convention Centers, hotels, underground parking garages, five star restaurants or upscale supermarkets being funded with taxpayers’ money anywhere but downtown.

Finally, Gary’s friend says in the next election Republicans will be vulnerable after they vote for property tax increases instead of supporting a real increase in impact fees (the tax on new homes just went up 78%, but apparently that isn’t a ‘real’ increase to Mayor Meeker).

But Republicans haven’t voted to increase property taxes. So that’s a straw man too.

What Mayor Meeker’s supporters seem to be telling themselves is that Republicans will run a candidate against the mayor who supports all of Meeker’s runaway spending and wants to raise property taxes to boot. So Meeker’s a shoo-in to win reelection.

But how likely is it that Republicans will nominate a candidate to the left of Charles Meeker?

Click to Read & Post Comments