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Dick Steinberg has resided in the city of Brookfield for 35 years. He served 34 years as municipal judge and has been an attorney for 50 years. He enjoys tennis, golf, biking and creative writing, which includes legal issues, sports, government and people.

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MAYORS MARCH MADNESS

Posted by DICK STEINBERG on March 23, 2010 | 106 comments

Mayors March Madness is here. The incumbent mayor sent the following campaign message to City of Brookfield residents.

"What his opponent has said about Jeff Speaker..."

     "We both endorse Jeff Speaker for Mayor because of the consistent, effective and capable leadership he has demonstrated over the past four years."

     "- Steven Ponto & Mark Nelson

         4th District Aldermen

         March, 2006 "

________________________________________________________________________________________

My first thought was that the mayor had a surprise endorsement. My second thought was that the mayor implied a surprise endorsement. Call it what you want but this is the ultimate of deceit in a political campaign expecting the residents to buy into this. This is equal to a negative statement because obviously it is not true today. There are certain standards of ethical conduct in politics one of which is to obtain current endorsements of people who may have endorsed you in the past. Why? Times change, people change, elections change and issues change. Common courtesy does not change.  There will be those who think it is clever. There will be those who think it is true(4 yrs. ago) and there will be those who believe that the incumbent has no endorsements of significance. I know good citizens who support one or the other candidate and are willing to have their endorsements made public. Surely there is one alderman out there that endorses the mayor. Or is there ? 

Personal endorsements and sentiments of support are important to candidates and they should not be abused.   May I add that it is the usual ethical practice to quote the material source of an endorsement that is not current. 

106 COMMENTS

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  1. ALL Unions Suck - Apr 06, 2010 2:13 PM - Report Abuse

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    I have'nt seen reality check lately but I would rather hire a person with a law degree, and more credentials than I can list than a guy who graduated from a tech school in fox valley..
    I cannot believe this is even a race.....

    PONTO FOR MAYOR

  2. Sparky McFarland - Apr 03, 2010 1:54 PM - Report Abuse

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    you want to know what is really really scary? The liberal rag Sheperd Express endorses Pontos.

  3. Santas Elf - Apr 01, 2010 10:57 PM - Report Abuse

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    Gator, don't know, but I'll bet his replacement will have the fire control kit, asbestos ejection seats and automatic OnStar.

    That'll price it up there with a Camry!

  4. El gato - Apr 01, 2010 8:34 AM - Report Abuse

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    Elf, I wonder if he bought the optional "fire control kit" or just went with the DYI version? Do you think he said "ugh" when it went up?

  5. Santas Elf - Apr 01, 2010 1:39 AM - Report Abuse

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    And speaking of cars, Dick, I think it's safe to say that the Indians are about to surpass the Japanese offering in foreign cars with this winner. Just another reason to buy foreign:

    http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Most-Emailed-Photos/ss/1756/im:/100331/480/urn_publicid_ap_org_ed4c9b02dd8a4193b6954e615e9e50c0/#photoViewer=/100325/481/urn_publicid_ap_org424eb05c78334a5badfaeb41edb80ddd

  6. Santas Elf - Mar 31, 2010 11:01 PM - Report Abuse

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    Dick, Thousands of people recently turned out at Senator Sullivan's recent town hall meeting to discuss 'private' water, as evidenced by this aerial scene of the parking lot:

    http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Most-Emailed-Photos/ss/1756;_ylt=AhWf73M4tgYOulgx5RPwceJsaMYA#photoViewer=/100331/480/urn_publicid_ap_org_ed4c9b02dd8a4193b6954e615e9e50c0

  7. El gato - Mar 31, 2010 4:21 PM - Report Abuse

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    Thanks for the address 2cents! There is an aerial view on mapquest. Apparently all this square footage is not in the residence. It looks like there are three structures on the land. Am I wrong?

    I must say that there are a lot of developers who were highly leveraged and are under water after the building bubble burst. They have all their money in land that's not selling. In the case of VKs private residence, I would think different rules apply to his property. He's going to have to fix it up externally or declare bankruptcy I would guess.

    I think developers where using the next project to pay off the last one (ponzi scheme) and when the next one didn't materialize there was nothing to do but go bust on the last one. Banks were just as much at fault as the developers!

  8. Santas Elf - Mar 31, 2010 4:12 PM - Report Abuse

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    Hey Dick, what's it going to take to get Speaker's leadership failure on city planning into the mayoral debate?

    This guy went out of his way to kiss up to the vk's of our community, and now we have a bunch of irrelevant half built / half occupied projects around town just begging to become crack houses. They bring in little or no tax revenue, yet demand the full panoply of city services.

    What's more, they look like hell!

    Is no one at city hall responsible for assessing the ability of a developer to complete and populate his creations before the city oks them?

    This vk guy has been living on the slippery slope of over indebtedness for years. And it wouldn't have required a Nobel Prize in Business to see that, had someone over at city hall bothered to look at his books as part of assessing his plan.

    Fortunately, one or two of his crazy ideas never made it to the ground breaking stage, so all we're left with is the same empty field we had before the guy decided to grace our town with his brilliance!

  9. DICK STEINBERG - Mar 30, 2010 7:08 PM - Report Abuse

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    maybe there will be a 100% voter turnout. then everyone can rightfully say they voted. just a pun.
    just as well if the informed voters cast one for Steve.

  10. Santas Elf - Mar 30, 2010 4:20 PM - Report Abuse

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    "from this discussion it would be valuable to have a mayor that understands the legal issues."

    Dick I have met few people as accomplished as are you in the use of nuance. There isn't a hint of "WE NEED A LAWYER FOR MAYOR! PONTO IS A LAWYER, THE OTHER GUY ISN'T! WE REALLY NEED TO VOTE FOR PONTO ON APRIL 6TH!" in your message.
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