Candidate statements

Thanks to K.C. at The Leucadia Blog for getting the candidate statements.

In general, the statements are long on motherhood and short on specifics. But a word search can give a clue to their priorities. Here's how the following words show up.


Pension: only Tony Kranz even mentioned the word that is perhaps the single most important issue in the long-term viability of the city. "Our city needs to control its expenses and its pensions. I will vote on your behalf to make this happen," Tony writes.

To be fair, Teresa Barth made pension reform a key issue in her kick-off speech, transcripted on her web site. "I have been principled and conservative in how our tax dollars are spent. I fully support public employee pension reform."

The word "pension" could not be found on Dan Dalager's or Kristin Gaspar's web sites. Note: Dan Dalager voted for the huge pension increase in 2005.


Fiscal responsibility: Barth, Dalager, and Gaspar claimed it. Dalager promised to "continue to put fiscal responsibility, public safety and basic services first [...]" If his idea of fiscal responsibility is huge pension giveaways, over-budget libraries, and vastly overpaying for the Hall property at the peak of the real estate bubble, I'd prefer if he didn't continue.


Open government / transparency: Apparently only an issue for Barth and Kranz. Kranz: "My campaign's theme is summarized in these seven words: Trust, Tranquilty, Tradition, Traffic, Trains, Trees and Transparency." Barth: "support open government [...] my actions have demonstrated my strong belief in government transparency and my determination to safeguard the public's right to know."

Encinitas City Council Candidate statements November 2010 election