I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you in person, but I’ve had a real pleasure in reading the Boise Guardian and reading intelligent and compelling Commentary from your readers!

Two days ago Annette Mooney called from the City and said something about my “info and the city site”. The message was muffled and I’ve put calls into her for two days and each time I’ve called I get, “I’m sorry she’s in a meeting.” I left another message for her this morning and have not heard back as yet.

A want-to-be-informed voter called me about an hour after the City called the same day. The gentleman asked me about why we (the challengers) were not posted in the papers, the city site, etc.?

I told him that the city had just called and he concluded, “Well, that’s probably because of my call. I told them at the VERY least they should post all of the Candidate’s information for voters!!”

I agreed that it was a great idea. I went on to tell him that the (Challengers) have given their responses to the questions given to us by both the Statesman and Boise Weekly. (To credit BW they posted our info today!)

The Statesman held a phone interview with me on the 4th of October. I sent in the requested photo before the “deadline”, (I didn’t have a professional photo for press yet, and crawled out of bed sick to get one shot), as well as submit my responses. However, this past Monday we were in for another interview, (this time with the Editorial Board) and they said they didn’t have the information I had previously sent over. (?)

I cannot tell you how difficult it is to watch as this “election” progresses, (if that’s what you want to call it).

People who have lived here for 10, 15, 20 years do not know that if they live in Boise that they vote for the Mayoral race AND the three City Council Seats. These folks are asking me about the district boundaries, about where to vote and how and where to register. I even had a couple of people ask me if the City Election is this year.

I’ve also checked around the Post Offices and then made a call to USPS about why we don’t provide voter registration forms at our area Boise post offices. They let me know that the City of Boise is “phasing out providing voter information at the area post offices.” The rep continued, “…it says here you have to call the City.”

More and more doors are closing to the voting public. Less convenience means less informed and even less registered voters.

Please VOTERS; Get the word out! Help me, help you! I am only ONE, and we need your voices, your vote! Know YOU can make a difference and YOU are invaluable to this community! YOU COUNT!

Thank you, Dave for the space for the race!

Most sincerely,

Redgie Kate Bigham
Candidate for Boise City Council

More proud than ever to be a Tibbs supporter!

Political Geek: Pop-Quiz, how many “green proposals” has Tibbs brought before Council? A-None. Won’t you at least give Bieter credit for putting the commission together? Please see the above for a list of Bieter’s accomplishments on the environment. As Mayor, he’s built protecting the environment into just about every aspect of his administration, not just some 3-page white paper during an election year. The fact is, that as a council member, Tibbs could’ve easily pushed for more aggressive action from the committee and forwarded his own ideas. He’s done nothing. I’ll give the guy some credit when he actually does something to deserve it. Also, last I checked, the Mayor’s race is non-partisan and judging by the campaign finance reports, Bieter has garnered a ton of support from well know republicans and democrats, so I’m not sure what your “are we so partisan” attack really meant.

Editor: the Bieter camp told me that the city never contacted them about the profile/photo. Thanks to your heads-up though, they’re sending the info in this week. Until then, however, folks can see a photo of Bieter and read his bio at both http://www.bieterforboise.com and http://www.cityofboise.org/Departments/Mayor/index.aspx. Mr. Tibbs also has a web site. I’ll leave it to Cyclops to post the link (no credit needed, since I don’t believe Mr. Tibbs borrowed it from anyone else).

And the Statesman should be ashamed of this. It is their JOB to publish news, including the names and positions of the candidates. And regarding the Boise Council, they have, to date, done none of this.

Now I know that business as usual with the Idaho Daily Mistaken is just to reprint press releases by adding a “reporter’s” by line, but there is usually no reporting going on. And the candidate’s are at fault most likely for not giving the “reporters” the press releases on which to attach their byline. But jiminy! Statesman DO YOUR JOB.

EDITOR NOTE–Looks to us that no candidates even bothered to respond to the City Clerk’s offer for a photo and profile on the website. Ever try to contact a city councilor without having to let the mayor’s staff be aware of it?

So, let’s get this straight Mr. Monihann, you and the rest of the Tibbs campaign “formed” “the position” in March,and at that point assembled your own team of experts, studied the issue, wrote your paper and released the Tibbs “Valley Vision Initiative” in September? Who were the experts?

I read the committees work and Tibbs’. To me Tibbs has a plan to DO SOMETHING, while some are close the committees, his are not mandates, but incentive based. He also has some cool ideas that are nowhere to be found in the committee work. Nick, will you give Tibbs credit for those ideas? Or are we too partisian to even do that?

I am also willing to bet a guy like Tibbs has actually sat down and talked with some of the members of that committee, unlike Dave.

And the reference to the ethics thing? Cute! Arrogant, but cute! Kind of like the mayor’s office without the “cute” part. Just plain Arrogant!!

For Tibbs to steal the recmommendations without giving credit to the committee, is a slap in the face to the folks who worked hard for 7 months to develop the recommendations. If you’re so convinced that all this was Tibbs’ idea, you may want to file an ethics complaint against the committee. Here are the names:
Gary Christensen, The Christensen Corporation;
David Gibney, HDR Architects;
Dr. Alan Hausrath, Sierra Club;
Dr. Don Reading, Ben Johnson Associates;
Sue Seifert, Idaho Energy Division;
and Dr. Dale Stephenson, BSU Department of Community and Environmental Health.

http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2007/10/22/krichert/pssst_theres_an_election_on

Kevin Richert,
Editorial page editor, Idaho Statesman