My city of 50,000 just elected a 24 year old mayor with no political experience.

[elocs]

http://lacrossetribune.com/articles/2009/04/08/news/00lead.txt

His only experience is working in the family's refuse hauling business (garbage) and he spent a few weeks training to be a Navy Seal. If he is not a Republican I think he leans hard that way. This city has a multimillion dollar budget and it will be run for the next 4 years by someone with no experience and I wonder who will be actually pulling his strings. I have to admit that Matt Harter really wanted the job more than his opponent and campaigned hard and like Obama he had simple political signs all over town, but then we heard about how signs don't vote. Guess they did. It's going to be an interesting 4 years here that will either make or break our new mayor. At 28 years old his political career may be over.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Do you all have a city council or assembly?

A balance of power is good.

[elocs]

8. I believe it is a weak mayor/strong council form of city government.

The new mayor may be in for a rude awakening when he finds out he does not have as much power as he believe he has and he has to work with a city council to get things done.

[Blue_Tires]

2. his family must carry some influence...

i remember seeing on the news a few years ago some teenager still in HS becoming mayor of a very small town (or maybe it was councilman)

[AZ Criminal JD]

7. That teenager is now a U.S. Congressman from Illinois

Aaron Sclock who is now 27.

[elocs]

9. His name is well known because it is on the family's garbage trucks

all over the city.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Our former mayor and now senator, Mark Begich,

was a bit of a political prodigy, too. People always used to call him the boy mayor, although by the time he actually became mayor he was 41. He was only 26, though, when he won his assembly seat and he ran for mayor in 1994 when he was 32.

[WI_DEM]

3. or it may be just the beginning. I don't necessarily think at age 24

that it's so awful that he never has had any political experience. It sounds like he earned the job the old fashioned way by working hard. My guess is that if he were a liberal we would not be so upset that a young upstart won.

[elocs]

12. He "earned" his job because the family owns the business.

Like Obama he will have a tough row to hoe and things to get done and he will be forced to work with a city council to get it done. This is not the village of La Crosse or the town of La Crosse, but a city of 50,000 with a multimillion dollar budget. Harter also won the city council seat he was running for at the same time. Even as a Republican I would have been more comfortable with him if he had served a couple of terms as a council member and actually had learned how things run. Until he ran in yesterday's election he did not seem interested in government at all.

[NeedleCast]

4. Strange

Article says he "spent some time in the Navy." That's either poor reporting or worrisome.

[Canuckistanian]

20. Sounds like he flunked out of the Navy SEAL program

That in itself isn't a great shame. It's a tough testing procedure and not everyone can handle it.

[elocs]

29. I think he had a medical problem, but he did try to puff up his resume

making it seem like he was a Navy Seal. One time he also tried to infer that he was a Naval pilot, but he got called on that and had to back off.

[NeedleCast]

31. The SEAL program isn't a program if you're not already in the Navy

You can't just sign up to go to SEAL training and you wouldn't be kicked out of the Navy if you failed it (most people do).

That's why it seemed strange to me.

[Truth2Tell]

5. I'm all in favor of politicians with no experience.

Republicans, not so much.

The important qualifications for public office are integrity, willingness to learn, empathy, humility, the ability to think critically, etc.

"Experience" in our political system just provides more opportunities to become a slave to conventional wisdom and a creature of corruption.

My signature pic is of a young "inexperienced" mayor, who ended up saving the city of Cleveland from the theft of it's power utility, among other notable achievements.

I'm sorry if you ended up with a Republican mayor though. That part sucks.

[phantom power]

6. I'd be more concerned about life experience than political experience.

But hey, he has his chance to show his stuff, I guess.

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. I may not agree

with his politics but I wish him well and hope he is successful. There are a lot of things to respect in this young man.

I do not wish ill for him or his constituents. Doing so would be reminiscent of the blowhards who have wished that President Obama fail.

[elocs]

15. I wish him well too. Hell, I have to live here.

With his lack of experience I am concerned about who may be pulling his strings and advising him and how well he is able to stand up for himself.

[Coyote_Bandit]

22. Instead of

starting with such a negative perception of this young guy - why don't you assume the role of unsolicited string puller and adviser? Maybe get some others to join you.

Worst case: You put your views on record.

Best case: You are able from tme to time to exert some influence or raise concerns that are addressed.

[elocs]

23. I believe my perception is realistic, not negative.

Everything about the new mayor is neither contained in the story of his election victory or my short post. He would be hard pressed to run a big business on his own much less a city of 50,000. Somebody is going to have to tell him how things run.

The woman who lost is a Democrat but she ran an underwhelming and overconfident campaign seemingly believing that there was no way she could lose to a 24 year old with no political experience. Harter was hungry and he wanted it more and worked hard to get it.

[Coyote_Bandit]

26. You just told me that

this young guy is ambitious and works hard. Those two things can compensate for lots of inadequacies. And skills can be acquired - sometimes rather quickly.

I would disagree that the ability to run a big business is necessary to successfully serve as mayor of a fairly small town of 50,000. There will be other people that work with the young mayor in making decisions. And IMHO today's CEO's are not exactly a model of service, success or leadership.

Good luck.

[elocs]

27. Yes, he worked hard but there is the distinct possibility he is over his head.

Also, La Crosse is the 12th largest city in the state of Wisconsin and would hardly be considered to be a town. In 2008 it had a $65 million budget. The outgoing mayor has taken a job as the administrator of Johnson Creek, WI with a population of 2200 and an operating budget of $2.5 million. Now, that's a town.

[Coyote_Bandit]

30. delete

[scheming daemons]

11. My City of 400,000 (Pittsburgh) has a current mayor who took office at age 28

Don't be an agist.

[Lex]

17. he referenced experience

not just age

[pleah]

13. I think most Mayors are just figure heads, the city counsel actually runs

the show. Or, is it different for different states?

[elocs]

16. In La Crosse the mayor is not a figurehead, but it is weak mayor/strong council. n/t

[SoCalDem]

19. Our city council takes turns being mayor

A lady on our street used to be on the council, and when it was her turn, we always called her "Your Mayorness" :rofl:

[pleah]

25. LOL

Love the bunnies! :rofl:

[noiretextatique]

14. insane

absolutely nuts.

[SoCalDem]

21. read the comments. this one's a piece of.. work.. or something

couleeChristian wrote on Apr 8, 2009 11:43 AM:

" Prophets of doom, you're another who just needs to shut up and move away, you and your like are no longer welcome in La Crosse. Mayor Harter: let's run these losers out of town, I suggest a couple hours east to the people's republic of madison with the other LIEberals and democRATS. "

[patrice]

24. "Christian" : - ((((((((( !!!

[elocs]

28. OMG! You read the comments. How brave of you.

Based on the comments read in the La Crosse Tribune you would never know that La Crosse voted for Obama with 61% of the vote.

[elocs]

32. It seems like in my city the ones happy with the new mayor

are in anti-intellectual heaven. Supporters of the loser, Lenard, are perceived as being intellectual and political. Some of this comes from the fact that Lenard handily won the college wards, those bastions of Liberalism.
Somehow the backers of mayor-elect Harter are orgasmically happy like this is some kind of payback for Obama's win (Obama won La Crosse with 60% of the vote). They also appear to be proud that Harter has neither a college degree or any political experience, therefore he can be neither intellectual or political.

Yes, there is more to this entire story than just a 24 year old winning the election for mayor (there is no city administrator here) in a city of 50,000 and a budget of over $60 million. Apparently my city has a strong streak of anti-intellectualism that has raised its ugly head and they believe they will have a new champion at city hall. This is going to be an interesting 4 years.