Tuesday’s column: An endorsement for Mayor David Bowers
Roanoke city mayor David Bowers tosses a football during a tour the new football stadium at William Fleming High School Monday morning. Members of Roanoke City council and the school board toured the newly finished stadium. | By Jared Soares| The Roanoke Times
If you hadn’t noticed, there’s an election for mayor coming up in May. Mark Lucas, a political neophyte and businessman, is challenging incumbent David Bowers, a local lawyer who has three terms under his belt.
I’ve been giving this mostly issue-less race a lot of thought. After weighing the pros and cons of both candidates, and measuring them against each other, and considering certain other factors, I’ve come to believe it would be best if Mayor David Bowers was re-elected.
Best for me, I mean.
Recently, when Lucas hinted that Bowers is “a figurehead” of a mayor, he was bending over backwards with kindness. Although Bowers is affable, the best things you could say about him is he’s an expert glad-hander, ribbon-cutter and parade-leader.
Apart from that he’s difficult to take seriously. And those qualities make him wonderful fodder for a newspaper columnist.
To the mayor’s credit, he has mellowed and grown in certain ways. His early years in office were characterized by actions that called into question his judgment, temperament and his ability to put the interests of citizens above his own.
Remember the early years of Mayor David Bowers, such as when he browbeat an elderly constituent into tears during a city council meeting in 1996?
Or when he publicly stormed out of other meetings after disagreements with council members?
Remember Bowers’ embarrassing attempts to fatten his own wallet with a $5,000 pay increase in 1997, while city council approved 3.3 percent COLAs for rank-and-file workers? Those were so clumsy you would have sworn the guy could trip over a cordless phone.
READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.
April 3, 2012 - 6:00 AM
As much of a cheerleader for Roanoke he is. This may have just convinced me to go Lucas. The Valley is trending upwards and beyond and it may just need a Mayor that exemplifies this.
After reading your artcle,I am swelling with pride for having David Bowers as our mayor. There was a “tingle up and down my leg” when you reminded me how Bowers rhetoric soared after the mouse crisis at the market building. I did not appreciate the gravity of the problem until Mayor Bowers put it in perspective. It was, indeed, Roanoke’s version of 9/11 and Bower’s was Rudy Guilianni. While Bowers may not have found a firefighter in the rubble at ground zero, he did corner a mouse near the pizza counter.
I’ve never voted for the man and never will. In fact this year I’m voting for the other guy. My mantra is “Anyone but Bowers”…
Wow, Lucas could not BUY that kind of endorsement for any amount of money. Way to go Dan.
Bowers is a complete clown. Roanoke City should be ashamed that this is the person elected to represent the city. I don’t know Lucas, but I’m confident that he would be a better “face” for the city. He’s certainly more respectable and I’d find it hard to believe that he wouldn’t be the better recruiter for the City. Please Roanoke, make the clown parade go away! It would be better for the City and the region as a whole.
Dan, how cruel and mean-spirited. You should be ashamed of yourself. I support Mark in this campaign but cannot believe your editors would allow you to refer to a public official as dumb and weird.
You are a pathetic excuse for a journalist.
Yeah Dan
You should have described Bowers as “smart and respected”. That would have made you a better jounalist and not as “pathetic” as Michael describes.
#7 That’s Dan for you, never one to mince his words. Sometimes though, and I think this is a perfect time, that is what is needed; someone to tell it like it is and not beat around the freakin’ bush. The Mayor of Roanoke is almost literally the “face of the city”. If he acts in a selfish, “mean spirited” manner then I think he should be called for it. Regionally, he is probably the most public figure there is and he should represent the City, and the Valley, with civility and proper decorum. He has not done that.
oops, I meant #6…
Dan…. you beat up on the well-fargo matter alot. Have you ever looked at the council minutes to see how it all transpired? Roanokes school board approved the deal with wells-fargo and requested city Council approve it….. it was Ray Farris and City Council that stopped it and the high fees.
You are always beating up on wells but the Roanoke school board APPROVED it! Read the minutes or watch the video!
Yeah but has Bowers EVER done this?
“When he served as Roanoke’s mayor from 2000 to 2004, Smith presided over a city council dominated by Democrats with whom Smith often butted heads. …When he was Roanoke’s mayor, Smith once came to Richmond and lobbied then-House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, to defeat a bill that would allow the city to increase its admissions tax to fund improvements at the Roanoke Civic Center — an initiative pushed by his city council colleagues at the time.”
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/304435
Lucas may be the new broom that Roanoke needs, but taking a hatchet to a man who has served Roanoke with undaunted enthusiasm for decades is just an ugly way to win. Unless the Council agrees to expand his role, he too will be a figurehead, at ribbon cuttings and waving in parades.
Hey folks,
It appears that Jack McGuire is trying to sneak back into the discussion. Someone calling themselves ASC and Olehippy has been posting here, and — guess what — the same IP address is the last one Jack M used back the last time he posted here.
#11 Thank you for finding that, Sandi. I’ve cited this incident a couple of times in describing how despicable Smith could be, but I couldn’t remember the exact issue. What an infant. He didn’t get his way in the council vote so he went behind their backs.
#13 Maybe he’s jealous of DD’s reinstatement? Birds of a feather.
Mark is a good guy, first and foremost I wanted to say that. Due to Roanoke’s onerous party affiliation process, when he decided to try his hand at local politics he had to pick a party or run as an independent. I told him he was making a mistake by running as a Republican, and I think it will be his undoing as this blog is demonstrating. That’s a shame because party affiliation should have nothing to do with serving your local community. If Roanoke City wasn’t so wedded to the party affiliation process (for obvious reasons) Ralph Smiths name, who isn’t even in this election wouldn’t be appearing on this blog. I’m no Smith fan, wouldn’t vote for him for dog catcher, but I’m no Bowers fan either and the two have nothing to do with each other, and neither does Mark. This is like lumping the President in with Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi at election time, and lots of us didn’t appreciate that election tactic either. But what I’m really opposed to is party labeled local elections and local elections in May. Those two facts are mostly responsible for Roanoke having a history of weak sometimes incompetent city council representation and I’m just saying, most of them have been and are Democrats (or at least they say they are, probably just to get elected in the first place). So, should we criticize all Democrats for that? I don’t, I blame the before mentioned two items, and ultimately the offending individual elected official and there have plenty of them. To illustrate what party politics does to influence election behavior on the local level, has no one noticed that Court Rosen (a South Roanoker and a developer God forbid) says he is a Democrat and prominently advertises his affiliations with black churches in NW Roanoke, especially on his re-election material? I have also seen him in attendance at First Presbyterian Church, a well documented South Roanoke and Republican leaning church, and he claims to be Jewish by faith. Would everybody feel better about Mark if he took this tactic? I find it very interesting that no one has anything to say about Anita Price. She appears to be a really nice person and her heart seems to be in the right place, but what has she ever done to contribute to Council? After several terms she can’t even site one idea or action she has successfully advanced during her tenure on Council. Did you all see the RTimes piece on the Council elections this weekend? She was a no show on anything meaningful. If it wasn’t for Mason Adams including her name you wouldn’t even know she was a candidate. So why does she keep getting elected? Because she is a Democrat with no baggage who is a nice enough person, and she has affiliated herself with the right folks in City Democratic politics; not exactly a definition of “qualified”. I’ve got nothing against Ms. Price but she is an empty seat on Council, watch a Council meeting and you will agree. Anyway, I hear you guys when it comes to Republican BS and we don’t need any of it on our Council (I live in the City). But as someone who knows both candidates very well, I can tell you that just as you couldn’t tell that Mayor Bowers is a Democrat by his Council service unless you knew it, neither would you be able to tell that Mark is a Republican if he was elected. Unfortunately if history repeats itself qualifications won’t be the number one determining factor in this Mays election, and they never will until the process is changed. Don’t look for that to happen anytime soon though thanks to the current powers that be….the Roanoke City Democrat Party. For that we are all shortchanged when it comes to local leadership
Correction: Second Presbyterian, not First. My apologies.
We all know,knowjoe, you don’t want to make THAT mistake. Them’s fightin’ words.