Who do you support for KC mayor?

[proud2BlibKansan]

Here are their websites:

http://brooks4kc.com/

http://www.markfunkhouser.com/

[catmandu57]

1. Funkhouser reminds us of Lurch

on the Addams Family show, in physical appearance. I'd vote for him if I lived there.

[loudestchick]

2. I want him to wear a lincoln style stove pipe at the St Patty's day parade. He said no.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. He's a republican

It's a nonpartisan race but the Funk is a republican.

[ochazuke]

4. Whatever

His resume sure doesn't look like a Repbulican's, and neither does his rhetoric.

As for Brooks: he will defend to the last the inefficient, corrupt, and anti-democratic City Hall where he has failed to provide any leadership or vision for the last eight years. If he was really for 'constructive change', he should have proposed something during those eight years instead of going around to candle-light vigils and relegating the 6th district to the evil rule of Chuck Eddy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I respectfully disagree

He supports vouchers - a republican platform.

He wants to cut back on health care - a republican platform.

[ochazuke]

6. Brooks is more Republican

Brooks talks like a Democrat about things he has absolutely no control over, but enables the corporate welfare state that is Kansas City in the early 21st century. He is an integral part of the Barnes-Eddy-Fairfield faction on the City Council. I have spoken to him about matters on which I have first-hand information. He did not believe me because city bureaucrats with a vested interest in lying told him otherwise. As such, he is a perfect mirror of the Liar in Chief.

Funkhouser did say we should consider school vouchers, but is not pushing it. He did not say we should cut back on health care. He was a social worker early in his career and you should sit down and listen to him explain how that led to becoming city auditor.

Funkhouser is about process. He often admits that he doesn't know the details of some problem or other around town, but he advocates an open governmental process that Brooks dismisses as being unnecessary; he already knows what we want.

As one of the thousands of residents of the sixth district who Brooks has totally ignored (from Richards-Gebaur to Red Bridge Road) over the past eight years, I can only say "like hell".

[protect our future]

7. Glad to be a Funkhouser supporter

I've received a negative direct mail piece from the Brooks campaign with allegations that Funkhouser is "up to no good." Below is Funkhouser's reply, which I received in an e-mail. I hope it's okay to post it here. And it is not my intent to be divisive as I believe both candidates are well qualified ... yet I am sick of "business as usual" while the crime rate is scary, the career criminals lurk in the streets, and my neighborhood looks like sh!t due to lack of code enforcement.

FYI, Mark Funkhouser is definitely a Democrat!

Now here's the Funkhouser e-mail:



Dear Folks,

Here are my responses to the allegations against me in the direct mail piece sent out by the Brooks campaign.

1. Allegation: As City Auditor, Funkhouser recommended selling the water department, the airport, park land and community centers to private companies. Is that being smart with city assets?

Fact: The council on which my opponent serves as Mayor Pro Tem has privatized the Zoo, some of the golf courses, the American Royal Center, and transferred most of the city’s public works projects to the private consultants running the city’s Capital Improvements Management Office (CIMO).

2. Allegation: As Auditor, Funkhouser recommended charging residents for trash pick up. Didn’t voters approve an earnings tax in the early 1970’ for trash pick up and trash bags?

Fact: The council on which my opponent serves as Mayor Pro Tem established the present system of charging residents for pick up of trash bags beyond the two-bag limit.

3. Allegation: As Auditor, Funkhouser recommended a 5% pay cut for city employees. Last month he handed out a letter to employees at city hall suggesting he would raise their salaries. Which is it, pay cuts or pay raises?

Fact: It is not true that I recommended an across the board pay cut for city employees. I have advised on numerous occasions that city employees need to be better paid, better trained, better equipped and better managed.

4. Allegation: As Auditor, Funkhouser recommended diverting funds from the 1989 voter approved health levy (for indigent health care) to the city general fund. Is this keeping faith with the voters?

Fact: It is not true that I recommended diverting funds from the 1989 voter approved health levy (for indigent health care) to the city general fund.

5. Allegation: Last month, Funkhouser said he favored school vouchers and a week later reversed his position. Is flip-flopping a positive leadership trait?

Fact: I did reverse my position on school vouchers when I learned that it was not possible to both work with the school districts and support vouchers. In the search for real solutions to problems, a little learning is a good thing.

6. Allegation: While Auditor, Funkhouser applied for Superintendent of Schools, twice for City Manager and was turned down. What does he really want to be?

Fact: I was asked by the Desegregation Monitoring Committee to apply for Superintendent of Schools. I applied to be City Manager because I thought I was the best qualified for the job. In each case I followed the same basic principle – try to improve the way government responds to the needs of regular folks.

7. Allegation: Funkhouser recently said that he has been planning to run for Mayor since 1998. Has his long term plan to run for Mayor influenced his audits and management of the Citizen’s Survey?

Fact: While individuals have suggested that I run for Mayor for years, I didn’t think seriously about doing so until three or four years ago. In America anyone is free to run for public office if they follow the rules. I followed the rules and retired before I ran. The best way to be ready to ask the people for a promotion to Mayor was to do a good job as City Auditor. I think the record shows that I did that.

8. Allegation: Many leaders question Mark Funkhouser’s ability to work with people. Some say he is a loner. How well will this City work if Funkhouser is Mayor?

Fact: I could not have had the success I had as City Auditor as a loner. The people who say I’m a loner are willing to say anything to prevent me from being elected.

9. Allegation: Funkhouser has worked inside city government for 18 years. Is he really an outsider?

Fact: I have always tried to work in the public interest and I think my record shows that. I have worked inside the city government but my focus was always on the people of the city.

[ochazuke]

8. In a "race about race"...

...it's black and white, or is it? Looks like shades of gray to me. Pat Gray, that is -- the sleazy campaign operator who IMHO is even worse than Jeff Roe. Gray's the guy who put out those distorted pics of Nace and Glover a few years ago.

Pat Gray was hired by the following candidates:

Alvin Brooks
Beth Gottstein
John Sharp

Their respective opponents, Funkhouser, Gamble, and Curls, are the targets of some really awful mailings here in the final days. See Dave Helling's piece on one of these: http://buzzblog.kcstar.com/?q=node/389

[protect our future]

9. Thanks for the heads-up, ochazuke!

And at this late date I FINALLY decided where my vote will go for one of the races, based on a dastardly mailer I received today -- election eve, with no chance for the targeted victim to respond. Pat Gray, eh?

[Guava Jelly]

10. I got funky!

:)