Would You Like A Saucer Of Milk With That Comment, Heather?

With the race for Sacramento Mayor heating up, I wrote this column for The Sacramento Union Friday March 24th. I will post the follow-up column tomorrow.

*************************

On March 5, former NBA player and Sacramento native Kevin Johnson announced that he is challenging two-term (and wanna-be three-term) Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo in the upcoming municipal election in June.

Described by NBA.com as “blindingly quick and possessing the ability to shoot or dish off his drives, Kevin Johnson can be as difficult to defend one-on-one as any point guard in basketball.” I am hoping that this translates to his political career. He’s going to need those fast-moving skills in the turbulent flight ahead.

After Johnson’s announcement, Fargo sneered on KCRA Channel 3, “If he is going to question my record, I get to question his. He will need to open up his books and explain to the taxpayers where all that money went in Oak Park… He has a fair amount of back taxes owed. He has some liens on his property. He will have to clear that up.”

Meow. Someone offer Mayor Fargo a saucer of milk.

While Bee columnist Marcos Breton contends, “Fargo didn’t just take the gloves off – she put on her brass knuckles,” I find her words more malicious and ill tempered. In other words, you are finally seeing the real Heather Fargo and not the tame, folksy persona she prefers in public.
Where Fargo made her big slip up was telling the Bee, “People are amazed by how many 9-0 votes we have,” referring to how everyone on the city council is like-minded. “What (he) is doing is running against the entire council, all of our records, and we have to defend what we’ve done together—and I think there is a lot.”

Another meow, Heather.

The Sacramento City Council members are also the same people fouling up all of the local boards and commissions in Sacramento—of course they all vote 9-0 on issues. They all share a bed as well as the same political consultant. Fargo is so out of touch, she is touting this political incest as a good thing.

That’s reason enough to want a different mayor—especially someone who has been the recipient of the city’s attack machine as soon as he started showing interest in running.
Just as with Hillary Clinton’s claim of “vast experience,” Sacramento residents don’t like the “experience” we have had with Heather Fargo. She has never been responsible for employees on her own dime or had to operate within a real budget or has even been on the receiving end of the redevelopment process. To his strengths as a candidate, Kevin Johnson has done those things. He has real business experience and responsibility where Heather Fargo has none. Spending other people’s money does not count, although she’s really good at that, as her “vast travel experience” is evidence. If only “Sister City” residents could vote.

Fargo told KCRA Channel 3 that voters should consider both her and Johnson’s records before choosing a candidate.

“We both have been entrusted with public money, taxpayer money and I think we need to review those records, and I think the public will be much more comfortable with mine,” Fargo said. “The improvements that he’s touting in Oak Park were all done with taxpayer money and that’s why we have to take a look at that.”

Meow, meow. Heather Fargo and the city council spend taxpayer money faster than we can get those property tax checks in the mail every April and December. The K Street Mall is an excellent example of wasteful spending and even worse oversight.

Let us remember the outrageous $8 million purchase of the Joe Sun & Co. building and store inventory—only a fraction of the $28 million spent on the hideous K Street redevelopment in just 2006. It seems that the city lightweights blew their budget on Joe Sun’s ugly building and now can’t afford to pay Moe Mohanna market value for his property. Heather Fargo is already demonstrating that she’s just another unsophisticated liberal harridan with her own self-interest in mind. She’s had eight years to show us otherwise. But she hasn’t.

Finally, Sacramento has a real race for mayor. Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. Return your trays to the upright and locked position. If further action becomes necessary, The Sacramento Union crew will inform you of this in a timely manner. We are about to encounter some heavy turbulence.