Last night Matt took a rare break from borough council meetings to bring his daughters to see Taylor Swift so Council President Claire Deicke presided in his stead. She used the occasion to announce that she would not seek re-election this fall and that Janis Keown-Blackburn would be running for her vacated seat.
Claire and I are pretty far apart in our thoughts about the proper role of government in our society but I absolutely support, applaud and thank her for all the work she has done with non-governmental, privately-funded charities. For the sake of people who have fallen on some kind of hardship and are helped by the efforts of people like Claire, I hope she continues her good works for a long time to come. I think she will.
I regret that I don’t know Ms. Keown-Blackburn but I’m looking forward to meeting her and wishing her good luck. She’s a recently retired pilot for Spirit Airlines and is their first female pilot to retire (I confess, I googled her.) She also sits on the zoning board.
I have to express my relief that the Democrats chose a regular person from the private sector-real world instead of some politically-connected insider for Tom and I to run against. It looked for a while like Bill Young was going to run. Although I (and apparently, the Democrats) think Mr. Young would have been easier for us to beat, if we have to lose I would rather lose to someone like Ms. Keown-Blackburn than to Mr. Young or some other political player. But we’re not going to lose so don’t worry.
2 Comments
This was all nice to read. I second the acknowledgment of Claire’s being an outstanding example to all Belmar residents. And yes, I too look forward to a race with a candidate who does not appear to be intrenched in the local “good ol’ boy” structure. If Young had run, HE, in my opinion, would have made it a nasty campaign. That is not what Belmar needs and I hope, not what it would want.
Thank you, Dave…….Claire
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