That’s according to Facebook, anyway.
Travis Swanson is the second UW-Oshkosh student to run for the office, after Ed Kastern also picked up signature papers at city hall recently. I’m not sure if Swanson has officially picked up the papers, but his campaign Web site says that they’ll be canvassing for signatures on Saturday.
As of today, five people have intentions of running for Council, in addition to current Councilors Jess King and Tony Palmeri, which will mean that there will be a primary on Feb. 17.
The interesting thing is that people directly affiliated with the university could potentially make up a majority on the Common Council. With College of Business Dean Burk Tower already in place, the spring election could see the re-election of Palmeri (Communications professor) and the election of two students (Kastern and Swanson).
Is this possible? Maybe, although anyone defeating King seems unlikely, given her popularity in the city. On the other hand, she is also a former adjunct professor at UWO, making her also partly affiliated.
Also, Councilor Paul Esslinger announced that he’ll be running for mayor for a third time against incumbent Frank Tower. I don’t see this working out for him, considering his rep for seeking revenge against past political opponents (River Mill sidewalks, anyone?).
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Another municipal smoking ban
This week, the village of Weston (near Wausau) Village Board passed a smoking ban that will take effect in 2010. It appears to have many of the business owners in the area up in arms, and probably for good reason.
The problem with this is that hard-core smokers, or most "regular" bar patrons, tend to avoid bars where smoking isn’t allowed. With a small community like Weston, they’ll be able to go to surrounding areas in order to be able to smoke while they drink. An unintended side effect of this is that they’ll be driving farther to get home, likely over the legal BAC limit.
I don’t understand this one. With a Democratically controlled Assembly and Senate until (at least ) 2010, why didn’t the board just wait for a statewide ban? That way, losing business from community to community won’t be a problem because there won’t be smoking allowed indoors anywhere.
Another possibility is that the village board is looking to set an example to help hurry the process of a statewide ban. Municipal governments are the creatures of state governments, but in some instances they can have strong influence on state policy.
To me, this seems like an inopportune time to be enacting an ordinance that will negatively affect business, considering the economic situation we’re in. And another question: where was the tavern league on this one? Perhaps it’s not as strong as it’s made out to be, which will help speed up the process for a statewide ban.
Banning smoking in individual communities makes no sense and is really inefficient. However, the "it hurts business" argument is irrelevant when talking about a statewide ban.
The problem with this is that hard-core smokers, or most "regular" bar patrons, tend to avoid bars where smoking isn’t allowed. With a small community like Weston, they’ll be able to go to surrounding areas in order to be able to smoke while they drink. An unintended side effect of this is that they’ll be driving farther to get home, likely over the legal BAC limit.
I don’t understand this one. With a Democratically controlled Assembly and Senate until (at least ) 2010, why didn’t the board just wait for a statewide ban? That way, losing business from community to community won’t be a problem because there won’t be smoking allowed indoors anywhere.
Another possibility is that the village board is looking to set an example to help hurry the process of a statewide ban. Municipal governments are the creatures of state governments, but in some instances they can have strong influence on state policy.
To me, this seems like an inopportune time to be enacting an ordinance that will negatively affect business, considering the economic situation we’re in. And another question: where was the tavern league on this one? Perhaps it’s not as strong as it’s made out to be, which will help speed up the process for a statewide ban.
Banning smoking in individual communities makes no sense and is really inefficient. However, the "it hurts business" argument is irrelevant when talking about a statewide ban.
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