Sunday, October 04, 2020

Anoka County - The Ward 1 seat which is the one I can vote on. Two Republicans are running, I endorse neither. [Part 2 - Notice of local news outlet coverage]

 Part 1 was posted in September. Readers who might want to reexamine it can use the sidebar posting history links. Little to nothing of substance was posted, then.

Today, readers may want to read the hometownsource.com post where each candidate presents thoughts and background information.

The two candidates, alphabetically, John LeTourneau and Matt Look. Look is the incumbent. In the linked source: Each candidate links to a campaign website; again, alphabetically,

http://electletourneau.com/

 http://votemattlook.com/

The observation here, Matt Look's hometownsource.com text is shorter than John LeTourneau's. Neither website will be excerpted here. Readers have the links.

Each candidate has written enough to help voters choose. Read it if you are in the district and intend to vote the contest. Other readers might find it interesting; particularly those in Anoka County in other districts. 

It is the belief here that the same local news outlet has done comparable posting for county board contests in the other districts.Websearch should suffice for those wanting to find coverage for remaining districts.

Look and LeTourneau are contesting District 1.

___________UPDATE__________

As a courtesy to readers throughout all Anoka County Board districts, here are ECM Publishers links about four contests [District 1 included]:

Braastad faces Lutsey in Anoka County Board race
ECM Publishers

LeTourneau challenges Look for Anoka County Board
ECM Publishers

West challenged by Zikmund in Anoka County Board race
ECM Publishers

Hansen, Reinert again on the ballot in Anoka County Commissioner District 6
ECM Publishers

If there are any other county board districts on the Nov. 3 ballot, these are all Crabgrass is aware of. Other news outlets may cover the contests besides ECM Publishers. Every reader can do further websearch, but these few links are a start.

___________FURTHER UPDATE__________

Saturday, Oct. 10 - The anonymous Ramsey Reflector has written a negative post, another, about John LeTourneau. In the course of an election pending - anonymous. 

LTE writers have to say who they are.

Readers wanting to see what the Reflector wrote can websearch, no link is given.

The Ramsey Reflector opposes franchise fees, linking John LeTourneau to them.

Allowing Franchise Fees as uncapped and indirect taxes is terrible law and should be repealed. Hidden taxation is wrongful. Even when sufficient public debate discloses the faults of any use of franchise fees, they still evade levy limits, which are sound law. Evading taxing limits rather than reducing spending is hard, when things like the number of cops in a town is set statewide by a ratio requirement; cops to citizens ratio decisions ignore whether a town has a history of lawfulness or lawlessness which might make imposed ratios ridiculous. With payroll impositions and levy limits, franchise fees sit as low hanging fruit for city councils to pick. Absolutely terrible law!

Any city councilmember voting for franchise fees should be answerable to the electorate for sneaky taxing. However, when developers get SAC and WAC fees waived, there arises another bad bit of law, as well as an income shortfall. 

Impose the per-household connection fees uniformly so that landlord owners of rentals pay per unit the same as condos and detached single family housing, the dominant form of housing in Ramsey. Met Council loves shared-wall housing, but the neighbors from hell are easier to stand when distanced via large lots, and not imposed as a shared wall nuisance.

In that context, an inference about Ramsey's Reflector: this is an anonymous person, perhaps a rabid supporter of one or another of the County Board District 1 candidates, who dislikes LeTourneau. Each person who cares one way or another about that race must decide how much faith to put in opinions expressed without knowing who's saying them. 

All politics is local. The more local, the more political, perhaps. Again, no opinion or endorsements about the two republicans seeking the seat now held by one of them. Opposition to franchise fee imposition at this website is clear and reasonable - and historically consistent, as a part of Met Council imposed growth skepticism. 

Bless Ramsey, the little town on Highway 10 between Anoka and Elk River where the mobile home outlets along the Highway proliferate; the town now having North Star and its continuously stupid Town Center - woo, woo. The town with delusions of grandeur. Centralized imposition of growth costs across the metro region via Met Council, that is yet another thing which is bad law. Transit use over highway expansions is a lower cost proposition, long term, as long as people want the transit and will use it. Ignoring that 'as long as" caveat is simply planing running roughshod over reason, which planners love to see and do. Bless planners.

In closing, the impression here is neither of the District 1 candidates is a growth skeptic. Both have bought into Ramsey Town Center, hook, line, and sinker. Ditto, North Star. Two sops for developers. Bless developers. Bless politicians. Bless having a choice between two Republicans chasing the same public paycheck.