One often looks at two candidates and thinks: if only they could both lose. Other times, as now, one looks at two candidates, and thinks: it’s a shame they can’t both win. The latter situation is preferable, and it’s the one in which Whitewater finds itself with an at-large council race between Patrick Singer and Andrew Crone.
It’s to the advantage of the city that we have smart and dedicated candidates, both now incumbents on Common Council.
Months go, when Andrew Crone was first appointed to the seat he now holds, I wished him well. He’s been a good choice (as Cort Hartmann, an applicant he narrowly bested, would have been.) By professional background (and I think by temperament, too), he hopes to effect mediation between the city’s competing interests. We could use more of that, surely. There’s been an unfortunate tendency to favor enforced resolution (arbitration) over a consensus approach (mediation) from our city’s old guard.
Mr. Crone’s past accomplishments on city commissions, and his broad, forward-looking view, are both attractive. On the evening of his appointment in December, he mentioned looking ahead even fifty years from now. The long view is the right one; better to set aside a near-sighted gaze for a more-encompassing view.
Established incumbent and council president Patrick Singer seeks the at-large seat, too, after having served multiple terms as representative of the Fifth Council District. He’s smart and knowledgeable and hardworking.
Over the years, I’ve agreed with some of his positions, disagreed with others. (But then, although I believe in the inevitability of a New Whitewater, I don’t believe it will be – as I am – particularly libertarian. ‘New’ isn’t a partisan term; nor, truly, should it be. One can’t reasonably expect agreement on every position.)
Looking out over Mr. Singer’s work on council – across two municipal administrations and numerous legislative colleagues past and present – what will one find? Management of a sometimes querulous council, dealing with a former administration, establishing an orderly process toward a new one, navigating differing views of left and right, all during a deep recession: these have not been easy times for this small and beautiful city.
For it all, Patrick Singer has been an accomplished legislator. Where others have faded and flagged, he’s yet motivated. (Steadily, too; where peers or administrators have lost their cool, he’s stayed calm.)
Whitewater is fortunate to have good candidates; that, by itself, is a measure of progress. Both these gentlemen have offered much for Whitewater; I’m sure they will long after April 2nd. I believe, though, that Patrick Singer has served notably well on Council. I hope Whitewater sees it that way on election day, too.
A very well-written analysis of the local At Large race, Mr Adams. As you stated, we will be well-served by either candidate. I only wish that more races were equally well-contested by many eager, open-minded, and modern-thinking candidates. There IS a new day coming, despite what the old guard still archaically trumpets as “the banner inland city.”