Its good to have goals. Even better, some say you must dream big if you ever want to be successful in life! That said, I think that Alderman Joe Connelley's dream of becoming mayor is way bigger than he will ever be able to achieve. In light of Mayor Dave Bronconnier's announcement that he will not be seeking re-election, first term Alderman Connelly has decided that he is mulling over a potential run at the mayors chair. The only problem? He has no support and no money.
Now I must admit, I had the chance to golf with Joe at the Premiers Golf Tournament in Calgary this past June. I honestly liked him and he is a funny, larger than life approachable guy. In fact, after spending the afternoon with him, I felt a little bad about bashing him on my blog. Then I remembered, the post was well deserved. If you want a peek, the link is here WOW, Could the be any more arrogant! In this post, I quote the following rant that will haunt him forever:
"If I want to go be a bus driver, then I'm going to go be a bus driver. If there's any bus driver out there that's upset, well, then run for politics next time, run for politics in two years and hopefully you'll get there and hopefully you'll be making more money than a bus driver." "Come and run against me, that's the way it works." He also added "You get what you pay for." "The deal is if you want better politicians you've got to pay them better money. Bottom line, that's where it sits."
This tirade was in response to the Aldermanic pay raises and what effect it would have on pending salary negotiations with other City of Calgary Employees. Honest? Perhaps it is, but it was not very well thought out in my opinion. This alone will cost him a ton of support and dents his credibility as a 'mayor' calibre candidate.
Yesterday, Joe said he will wait and see what the people of Calgary have to say about his intentions of running for mayor. He points to his website, TELLJOE as a forum for the people to share their thoughts with him. I like the idea of this website but it is nothing more than a "puff piece" brochure. If I read between the lines I come to the following conclusions:
1) Joe is not running for mayor in 2010. One day? Maybe....but not this term. He lacks all of the most important requirements to win.... Money, Name Recognition and a Team.
2) This website is just part of Joe's early campaign strategy for re-election in Ward 6.
3) TellJoe.ca is a vanity project, which will increase his name recognition and branding for future elections. Touting himself as a potential mayor is genius. To be honest, I really do like the idea of the site and I will give him credit for running some of his social media platforms well. ( Twitter has over 200 followers and updated constantly, but Facebook at 35 Fans and no updates in over a month)
Pie in the Sky indeed.
Alright now Joe....come clean! Tell the good people of Calgary that you are NOT running for mayor. Just let them know that they heard it here first!
Shane
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