The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Monday, March 14, 2011

And then there were three


Peter Wernicke is running for mayor. He moved to Rapid City in 2004 and thinks everyone in politics is a politician...and he's promoting a "back to basics" approach to city government. Sounds....political...doesn't it?

Wernicke owns a piping design and stress analysis company. According to his announcement, he's owned the company since he was 26 years old and moved it here from New Jersey. Google lists the company as being headquartered in Hackettstown, N.J., but they could be wrong. A photo of the Rapid City headquarters is above. The New Jersey headquarters is in a nice townhome residential area, too. (Since I work out of my house, I'm never critical of others who do. He's obviously a fiscal conservative.)

He says infrastructure, fiscal responsibility and listening to what voters say are the qualities he'll bring to the table, which of course indicates to me that he either hasn't been paying much attention to Rapid City politics, or he's simply shoplifting Sam Kooiker's campaign, which would actually be pretty...political.

Kooiker is very well known for being attentive to voters. He's the most fiscally conservative councilperson Rapid City has had in decades and he's been harping on infrastructure since he first took office. It's going to be a tough haul for a candidate with no name recognition to run an identical campaign, especially when Kooiker has a proven track record of concern for infrastructure, responsible spending and listening to voters...

I suggest a change of message for Mr. Wernicke, gather tons of money to fight Hanks' and his primary supporter Sen. Stan Adelstein, and fasten your seatbelt...it's going to be a bumpy ride.

3 comments:

taco said...

If this guys cares about open government, fiscal responsibility and street repairs, he should drop out of the race. If this guy causes Sam Kooiker to lose the race, he will have done a great disservice to all of the issues he professes to care about because Sam is the one person who can makes those changes and win. Oh well, Peter's impact may not be that significant, especially if others throw their hat in the race.

I look forward to learning more about this guy and what else he stands for.

Michael Sanborn said...

Taco,
I try to never discourage anyone from running. It's too important to find candidates willing to take the chance. I do think he should find a message that does not parrot Kooiker.

Les said...

This race will create a history, not soon forgotten.

Sam Koiker for mayor of Rapid City with supporters in a 200 mile radius....wow.

What next Sam? This is the kind of person I would send to DC right now.