City Government
Winder Not A Candidate
April 19, 2007 
Long time Republican politico and real estate baron Chuck Winder told the Daily Paper he will not be running for mayor. Winder ran in the last race for mayor and lost in a four way split that saw Bieter get over 50% of the vote.
That leaves Dave Bieter, Jim Tibbs, and newcomer long shot Mike Murphy at this point. Bieter is incumbent, Tibbs is a City Councilor, and Murphy is “networking.”
Murphy is running an internet “My Space” campaign at present and at this point the GUARDIAN isn’t taking him seriously, but we post his comments and enjoy the participation.
There are some local issues we would like to see debated including the fate of the urban renewal agency, use of public money to create growth and development via the Chamber of Commerce, opening the Depot to the public, construction and locating a new police building, and allowing citizens to vote on long term debt to name a few. Annexation reform and urban sprawl will of course be discussed as well.
One unsavory note in the upcoming City election. The City Council voted prior to the last election to require at least a majority of the votes to win an election. Neither Paula Forney nor David Eberle had a majority last time. Eberle handily won a runoff…now he has voted with the majority of the council to go back to the old rule and not have a runoff. He has told the GUARDIAN the runn-off elections are very expensive.
We agree and think it would perhaps be best to just allow the GUARDIAN to appoint Councilors and save even more!
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 19, 2007, 4:55 pm
Mr. Murphy needs to list an email address on his MySpace page. Currently the only way to contact him is to register for MySpace and send a message through it.
As for the elections, more than 3 candidates muddles the issues and doesn’t always elect the best candidate without a run-off election.
Apr 19, 2007, 7:28 pm
Thank your lucky stars ,People of Boise ,that Winder is not running.My take on him,after much thought ,is: if you want a continuance of the “concrete jungle ” with a 1950 road system that gets updated ” very slowly and expensively,” Chuck’s your man. I like Mike but I wish he would use his candidacy to point out what Bieter has refused to do and not to take votes away from Tibbs. I honestly, not naively, think Jim Tibbs will be the best Mayor Boise has seen in many years. Don’t forget folks we have three council seats up for grabs too. My advice -get rid of the incumbent deadwood and inject new life into the City! Remember: VOTE! VOTE!VOTE!
Apr 19, 2007, 9:33 pm
I hear that Brandi Swind wants to run for mayor this year…Hope she does, it would spice things up!
Apr 19, 2007, 10:07 pm
Brandi SPICE things up – naw, that’s her whole problem, thatsah notta spicy meatball.
Glad that the most avowed developer isn’t running, though, politics might make for strange bedfellows, but I’m tired of paying for all of their illegitimate off-spring.
Apr 20, 2007, 8:55 am
Bieter has one hand extended to stop sprawl, whilst the other is behind his back with fingers wiggling in the classic waiter’s hand. He has done more to increase sprawl than he has to stop it. We can not only thank him, but also the lackeys in Public Works and Planning that do the bidding of the developers. These are people that make the mistake of believing that growth is PROGRESS.
All the classic examples of promoting sprawl in the valley are present. People inside the City are too outdated and read too little. Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a tumor.
We may think the cancer is gone with the right Mayor in place, but it is still malignant under the surface.
Apr 20, 2007, 9:11 am
Please Brandi, run. The other candidates don’t represent your constituency. They need you. Think of the cross. And the monument. Run, Brandi, run.
Apr 20, 2007, 11:19 am
I would vote for Tibbs. Has anyone asked Winder about running for a city council seat?
EDITOR NOTE–Dog, you just did!
Apr 20, 2007, 12:17 pm
I am still hoping someone will run that represents the constituency in most need.
I am, of course, referring to those families out there that are just looking for a decent strip club they can take the family to. You know, one that promotes a real family fun environment.
Apr 20, 2007, 12:47 pm
Uhm, Brandi Swindel??? You’re joking right? I hope so. Didn’t you read her replies to questions asked in the Idaho Statesman during her last run for City Council? She’s uneducated and has no concept of what it takes to run a city. Swindel would be an embarrassment to the City of Boise as a council member.
EDITOR NOTE–River City, it is indeed a long standing joke with Osprey. He offers up Brandi as a topic all the time.
Apr 20, 2007, 3:20 pm
I’m not joking. I want her to run.
Apr 20, 2007, 6:43 pm
Winder is correct that from here into the foreseeable future, it will be very, very difficult for a Republican-known candidate to win a Boise city election. The GOP lost Boise a few years ago. A good candidate can still win it, but not by running the namby-pamby campaigns that have been on page one of the state GOP playbook since 1994. They’ve about exhausted that playbook.
Apr 20, 2007, 8:41 pm
I can’t vote for Tibbs — his piss-ant narcissistic act got real old real quick when he didn’t get the chief’s job. I also can’t divorce Tibbs today from the Tibbs who spoke for the police department back in the wild west days when the cops made walking the streets of Boise a death-defying act.
Not Tibbs.
Apr 21, 2007, 1:51 pm
Sisyphus, Brandi is way out of touch with the majority of Boiseans.
She’s never been married, had kids, had a career, run a business, went to college or lived on her own. I’ll bet she still lives with her parents. When you see people drive by a demonstration and yell, “Get a job!”, she’s the kind of person they’re talking about.
It’s a free country and she’s entitled to an alternative lifestyle of extended adolescence. I just don’t want anyone like that running the city. We need a mature adult with experience in at least two of the following: business owner, parent, employee, student or spouse. She has experience in none of those and is simply a home-grown version of those infamous professional activists who flit from one controversy to the other.
EDITOR NOTE–I don’t want to chop anyone’s comments, but she is NOT a candidate and there is no reason to introduce her. So please don’t trash Brandi. Try to stay on topic. I did have to delete one comment which was inappropriate.
Apr 22, 2007, 4:53 pm
Gee Nick, maybe you should let us know how you really feel!
I understand that you may have a “dislike” for Tibbs, but your “wild west” comments just make you look kind of silly.
Apr 22, 2007, 9:22 pm
Gee Cyclops, I guess you weren’t around in those good old days. Or, perhaps you weren’t of that generation that had to care that cops were shooting first and asking questions later?
To you I look silly! Most old folks do find me rather silly. Glad to see you’re no exception.
Apr 24, 2007, 8:58 am
I’m sorry you don’t take my candidacy seriously, but suppose I am happy you allow my participation in your running dialogs. I am no longer “just” a MySpace candidate, and welcome all to revisit
http://www.murphyformayor.org.
In parting, I believe that the marginalization of any person who takes the time and effort to become a candidate for any office is a grave disservice to your fledgling news organization and it’s readers. While I recognize the “snowballs chance” of my candidacy, my observations of the dominant paradigm and proposed sollutions are valid.
EDITOR NOTE–You turned the corner with the new website.
Apr 24, 2007, 1:07 pm
I actually agree with Murphy for Mayor. I think that anyone who actually takes the time and effort to run as a candidate deserves some respect, even Brandi. Not votes necessarily but respect. All too often, people complain about government but never do what’s necessary to change things and that includes standing for elected office. It’s easy to complain but hard to run.