Politics in Parkville

It would be great sport to just sit back and watch, but the race for Platte County Commish is just too darn important to be just standing and watching the parade. What we have here is a couple of former mayors running for the position. One has a well established reputation as an even-handed administrator who rarely, if ever, participated in closed meetings. The other claims to have actually lowered taxes in the City of Parkville and seemed especially enamoured of closed meetings and, as we hear, of special "passes" for her dearest projects and friends.

We talked to a neighbor who is managing the former candidate's campaign, and he confirmed that his city taxes were easily higher at the end of the latter's reign in our city. The funny thing is that we voted for both persons when they ran for mayor. We liked them both, but after a long-term observation and interaction with both we definately have a favorite in this race.

For those of you not familiar with the persons being referred to in our post allow us to introduce them. The latest former mayor is Kathy Dusenbery. The one we are supporting is William Quitmeier.

Dusenbery is a very liberal Republican (we've heard she said, to a close neighbor of ours, that Sarah Palin is too conservative) and Quitmeier is a fiscally conservative Democrat. Without reservation we support Quitmeier, but to get elected we think he needs to get more aggressive in the campaign. We heard from a local newspaper publisher that Dusenbery has refused an offer to debate her opponent...not once, but twice. We think this is because Quitmeier has a much firmer grip on the facts and details that concern the race. Also, he's less likely to get flustered in a face-to-face exchange.