Ng-Credible
By Mitch Berg
Eva Ng, the independent businesswoman running as the GOP-endorsed candidate for Mayor of Saint Paul, faces an uphill battle.
By all accounts I’ve heard, she shredded Chris Coleman in their non-debate “forum” the other night. This should surprise nobody; in a one-party city like Saint Paul, DFL politicians can go their entire careers without ever debating anyone about anything more substantive than “who was more sad when Paul Wellstone died”. Conservatives debating Saint Paul DFLers is like the SEALs attacking Smurftown; people who’ve had to hone their information and skills over decades of being an oppressed minority going up against people whose only response is autonomic chanting (“Public Option Now! Public Option Now!”) or ad-homina isn’t pretty.
But Ng still has to face an entrenched bureaucracy and media that is in the bag for the status quo, as well as a population that is very heavily dependent on government, either as an employer, a benefactor, or a cornerstone of their worldview.
Still, she’s the first real conservative to get to the November election in forever. And she needs your support.
The PiPress has a brief op-ed from Ng explaining her candidacy:
I am running for mayor of St. Paul because I believe that my experience over the past 30 years in turning around difficult situations, making the most out of every dollar, and influencing others to help “right the ship” is exactly what St. Paul needs right now in the mayor’s office.
We must pull St. Paul out of this downward spiral by first freezing property-tax and fee rates, followed by finding ways to reduce them. We’re operating on a budget that is $100 million more per year than four years ago. There is enough money to fully fund our essential needs first. Those essentials are fire, police, emergency medical services, and roads. Then, we’ll prioritize our “wants” and fully fund the most desirable of them based on input by the citizens. The lowest priority of the “wants” will have to take a back seat until funds become available.
The whole thing is worth a read.
And if you can possibly help Eva out, by all means do.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Read her column this morning. Now I am even more impressed than I was before. Having spent my life in private enterprise, but following the public sector, I am always amazed at how useless most gov’t types would be if they ever had to survive out in the real world (cough cough Wellstone cough cough). Ng has many ideas on how to make gov’t work, instead of just having it be a bloated wasteful bureauracy. It’s not just cut cut cut, but actually do things more efficiently, so needed serves still occur, but in an effective manner. Not just exist to make AFSCME lives cushy. Oh, by the way, my employer is opening a branch in a gov’t facility, so have to operate under gov’t rules. It’s sad. Our unskilled clerks go from making $13 an hour in the real world, to making $26 an hour because that is the standard for gov’t workers, even if a private business is paying them.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Yay! Go Eva!!
祝你好運!!
努力吧!!
恭喜發財!!! -Chris 孫多佛