While I was down in Argentina last week, I received the following e-mail:
I was recently featured as a cover story on Noozhawk.com as I'm running for mayor on a platform of education as the 29 year old outsider underdog. Please blog about me at your leisure. - jmike! aka Mr. Santa Barbara, Jr.
You know, most people who ask me to write about a particular topic also want to tell me how I should write the story, so this request from Justin Michael, or JMike as he likes to be called, is a little out of the ordinary.
I was tempted to write him back and tell him that the best way to make sure you get mentioned in my blog is to do something stupid.
Blogging about JMike "at my leisure" figured to be anything but leisurely. I had never heard of him and didn't know the first thing about him. And, evidently, he wasn't about to help me. Not feeling like doing a whole lot of research, I was tempted to pass his request onto "The Investigator," who I understand has a lot of time on his hands these days.
I hit the close button on JMike's e-mail. After all, there was a bar around the corner from the hotel where I was staying that was desperately in need of someone to prop it up.
When I got back home to Santa Barbara I was a little disappointed to find out that the list of people he had e-mailed asking that they write about him was anything but a short one. And here I was thinking he was offering me the exclusive rights to his story.
Besides being on Noozhawk, there was an article in the Daily Sound and a story on KEYT News.
I can't remember the last time I saw so much written about someone who has accomplished so little, not that I would expect anyone to have a lengthy resume at a mere 29 years of age.
In fact, JMike evidently has no resume. Apparently he's hoping that "mayor" will be his entry-level job.
JMike told Beth Farnsworth of KEYT that he doesn't own a home and he admitted to Josh Molina, of the Daily Sound, that he has a prior criminal record.
I don't think I'll be endorsing JMike. I prefer elected officials who know what a property tax bill looks like and I have a hard and fast rule that I don't vote for anyone who has more misdemeanor convictions than I do.
Thursday evening I was leaving a meeting at the Franklin Center when I ran into another mayoral candidate, council member Helene Schneider who was waiting for the next meeting to start.
She was sitting in her car, an older model Toyota, which leads me to believe that if she's really using her position on the council to line her pocketbook as Travis Armstrong would have us believe, she sure isn't spending the money on wheels.
I asked her if she thought JMike was really serious about running for mayor. She said that she thought he was. She went on to point out that if perennial candidates Thinker Bill Hackett and Bob Hanson join the field, along with council member Iya Falcone (who has already announced) and Steve Cushman (who reportedly is considering entering the race) it could make for some interesting mayoral forums.
I'm thinking to myself that if Hackett and Hanson join JMike and jump in, this mayor's race is only one porn star away from looking like the last recall election of the governor.
For a blogger, it would be a target-rich environment.
If it isn't one already.
© 2009 by Craig Smith and www.craigsmithsblog.com
