Mary Kiffmeyer (Secretary of State)
--posted by Tony Garcia on 1/25/2006
By oversight on my part I had established a score on the Candidate Scoreboard without explaining it. I am going to fix that problem right now.
The current Secretary of State, assuming she runs for the office again, is not getting my support or my vote. That includes at the conventions. The reasons for this are plenty. Probably the biggest and most recent is the fact that her office does not see fit to report odd-year election results outside of the metro area. True, she is not required. However it shows an absolute ignorance towards public service to the state within her role. (- 4).
Next, remember the first budget year of her office? Jesse and the Legislature cut hers AND everyone else's budget. What did she do? She cut her office hours claiming that she could only maintain half the business hours. By doing that only temporarily is evidence that it was 100% political posturing and 0% regard for her actual duties. (- 2)
Additionally the arguement that budget cuts reduce necessarily her ability to run the office show two things. One: a big government mentality in that cuts are not allowable...they are only good when someone else is getting cut. So I guess it is the big-government (- 3) AND partisan hypocrisy mentality (- 3). Two: she is an ineffective administrator (- 3). I cannot support her for ANY executive position ever.
Finally I have a radio show. On four occassions we have invited her on for an interview, three of them within a month or two of an election. On four occassions we had confirmation either the day before or two days before. On three occassions she was a no-show (- 3 one for each no show). When I finally commented on this blog about it her family (some through anonymous comments, traced by IP though, thank you) gave every excuse on why it was OUR fault. Hey, if her office does not know her schedule enough then she has an huge problem running her office (already penalized above). Take some responsibility for a change (- 2). Can someone point to something that her office took responsibility for without trying to justify it? Whoops, we messed up kind of thing.
For these reasons I started her out at - 10 and any opponent starts with a + 5. After actually doing this post I decided that her penalty is not hard enough in the score. All opponents will continue to get the starting bonus, but her new score will be
So, instead of starting her out at - 10 I think she should be started out at - 20.
Count on it, her nomination at the convention will not be unanimous.
2 Comments:
Pity, that. Kiffemeyer seemed to be well respected among SOS around the country. I was thinking she might be a reasonable Senate candidate, given her significant statewide presence.
If she ran for Senate I personally would not penalize her as much. I have no faith in her ability to run an office which would be her job in an executive position (SoS, Gov, etc). Her inability to run an office is less impacting in a legislative position. I would be less resistant of a Senate run and even less resistant of a Congressional run. I might even vote for her in a run for Congress.
I think in the end the place she would be best is in the party. Her partisanship is unquestionable, her dedication to the party is also unquestionable. Her effectiveness within the party is stronger, methinks, than outside the party. I could even support her in a run as vice-chair of the GOP.
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