A working class mayor? Why not?
The idea that Lioneld Jordan may be running for mayor of Fayetteville is potentially very exciting news, for a lot of reasons.
It’s exciting for me personally because Jordan is a proud member of the working class, and has that true “union spirit.” For someone like me, who has spent a majority of his life - even while working for alternative publications - working in industry, his candidacy would be a breath of fresh air.
Few candidates reach out to those who work for an hourly wage; the ones that do, seem to do so by accident. We have a handful in Fayetteville- Jordan, Nancy Allen, or Joe Robson and Cyrus Young before them- who have appealed to voters across the board.
It’s hard to reach hourly employees. Let’s face it, wine and cheese campaign stops don’t seem to include a lot of factory workers, or people who work for less than ten dollars an hour. But there are a lot more of them in town than those who swig down wine and gobble cheese.
“Nobody speaks our language,” was a common complaint I heard in the years I spent working for Campbell Soup, Mexican Original or Superior Industries. “None of these politicians care about what we care about.”
And for the most part, they may be right. Some don’t bother, some take their votes for granted.
Most working people I knew didn’t vote in local elections - why should they? Who courted them or their votes? Who was out there, asking them what they cared about?
Lioneld Jordan promises to be a different sort of mayoral candidate. If he throws his hat in the ring, can the others keep up?
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette less than honest with headline?
No opponent in sight for Pryor Senate seat - November 11
Rebekah Kennedy? Remember her? Green Party candidate?
I guess they don’t. Or maybe they only consider Democrats or Republicans to be “real” candidates.
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That there Mike Masterson - he writes real good
Every so often Mike Masterson runs “You love me, you really love me” comments from readers in his column. And so it was this week, as he proudly displayed feedback from readers who wrote in approval of his Conan the Barbarian approach to child-rearing.
Oddly enough, Mike couldn’t seem to find any critical remarks to display. I guess none came in, huh?
