Mike Kennedy: Restoring Balance

Mike Kennedy: This is an important development in Kootenai County civic affairs. It’s good to see that the vast majority of common sense citizens and voters are organizing to push back against the extremists who promote candidates like Phil Hart and Larry Spencer. They dishonor normal Republicans who believe in effective and responsible government (not to mention ignoring Ronald Reagan’s actual record).

DFO: I believe the soul of Coeur d’Alene is at stake this year, as the uber-cons try to stretch their tentacles from Post Falls and Hayden and finish the job of putting ideologues in School Board and council seats. They were successful in overthrowing the Coeur d’Alene School Board via the ballot box two years ago and appointments since. Now, they have to defend those three appointments on School Board that has stumbled from one controversy to another — this, while targetting Mayor Sandi Bloem and three council incumbens to grab control of the City Council.  The out-of-town uber-cons and their anti-progress allies in Coeur d’Alene will latch onto the unsuccessful RecallCDA campaign of 2011 and residual unhappiness with McEuen Field in an attempt to stamp their ideological brand on the council. Consider what a council of six Steve Adamses would be like. The School Board and Coeur d’Alene City Council elections this year are the most important ones in my 29 years in Coeur d’Alene. If Coeur d’Alene falls to the ideologues, the bright light of progress that we have experienced under the Bloem administration will go out for at least four years. Maybe a lot longer.

Question: What are you doing to combat political radicalism in Kootenai County?