Category: The Road To Mayor
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Day 80: Horrigan – Public Enemy #1 – On The Road To Mayor
You probably think that title is extreme. “You’re just jealous he’s doing so well.” If I thought he was good for Akron I’d be pleased as punch he’s totally dominating this race. But I’m telling you this: no one is given this much absolute support without strings being pulled, promises being made, back office deals…
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Day 78 – Dan Horrigan Vaporware – On The Road To Mayor
His blog says: “Dan Horrigan has a very detailed, 15-part plan for the City of Akron, starting the day that he takes office as Akron’s new Mayor.” I was excited to dig into that. Truly, I’m all for ideas on making our city as great as it can be. But “very detailed” must mean something…
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Day 77: Akron Hunger Games – On The Road To Mayor
Granted, we aren’t offering up our children to fight to the death to appease the Capitol. But otherwise, there are a lot of similarities in how Panem, the nation in The Hunger Games, and Akron operate. Our UPS driver at work will often talk about the streets of Akron. As you can imagine, he is…
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Day 75 – The Homeless Army – On The Road To Mayor
I have a very difficult time getting signatures to get on the ballot to run for mayor. In Ohio, if your intention is to really run for political office, just swear your allegiance to the Democratic or Republican Party and you will have a much easier time of things. They need 50 signatures to…
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Day 73 – All 3 Candidates Bought and Sold – On The Road To Mayor
My heart sunk a little when I heard Eddie Sipplen decided to have Steve Albrecht to be his campaign manager. I really thought Eddie had a campaign manager who was really awesome. If you don’t know, Steve Albrecht is the chairman of the family-owned Acme Fresh Market. Acme operates 15 stores in Summit, Stark, Portage…
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Day 72 – Kicked Out of Another Discussion – On The Road To Mayor
I was asked a few weeks ago to participate on a panel about the arts in Akron. I was really excited about that because I have a close relationship with the arts in Akron. I spent all my high school years in the Akron Youth Symphony. I played countless concerts on the E.J. Thomas Hall…
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Day 71 – Homeless Interview – On The Road To Mayor
You can’t stand on a street in Akron without meeting a homeless person. As I’ve been doing my signatures I’ve gotten to talk to a lot of homeless people. These conversations are the best part of running for mayor! I wanted to start sharing them with you so you could experience them too. These people typically…
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Day 67 – I Am Changed – On The Road To Mayor
This trip to the West has shaped me more than anything I can think of recently in my life. I’ve been trying to find the words to describe what I’m feeling. The word I keep coming back to is: Greatness. The land. The monuments. The battles. Even the missile silos. The visions and sheer…
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Day 64 – They’re Failing You – On The Road To Mayor
Frank Comunale has officially left the race. You now have 2 candidates for the Democratic primary. Dan Horrigan – the puppet of the 30 year old Dynasty of greed and corruption that won’t let go of Akron. Mike Williams – the candidate that hasn’t done anything significant in 20 years at city council. And…
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Day 63 – Do You Feel Free and Happy? On the road to mayor
Life. Liberty (freedom). And the pursuit of happiness. It’s very interesting that those three things are presented in that order. You can’t have one without the one before it. With all my heart, I believe many of our freedoms have been taken from us by the wealthy and powerful. A perfect example of this…
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Day 61 – Greatness Is In You – On the Road to Mayor
I wish so much you could see what I’ve seen the last couple weeks. Yellowstone, The Black Hills, The Badlands. These are places that defy explanation. No words or pictures tell the story of actually being here. We are just leaving the Little Bighorn Battlefield area. This is where Custer’s Last Stand occurred. You…
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Day 59 – It’s Not A Personality Contest – On The Road To Mayor
I saw someone on Facebook say they were going to decide who to vote for Akron mayor by looking at things like: Who he is married to. How his kids behave and do in school. Where he grew up. Where he went to school. Where he goes to church. I get it. These things can be…
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Day 58 – Global Village Festival of Greater Akron – On The Road To Mayor
As mayor I will definitely continue this daily storytelling of the journey as mayor. I believe very strongly that elected office is a deep privilege that deserves a deep commitment to the whole community. To that end I believe the mayor’s office has a responsibility of shining a light on all the great things…
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Day 57 – Don’t Vote For A Democrat – On The Road To Mayor
I can’t remember the last time I didn’t vote for a Democrat. There were many elections I just voted down the party line. But for the Akron mayor election I’m telling you this: Don’t vote for a Democrat! About two weeks ago I made up my mind that I was going to endorse a…
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Day 56 – Privilege – On The Road To Mayor
I think you would have to be pretty tone deaf to not feel how lucky you are to get to spend time in places like: Yellowstone National Park Disney World The Outer Banks Naples Florida The Bahamas Hawaii Maybe you have had the opportunity to go to one or more of those places or…
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Day 53 – What Is Freedom To You? – On The Road To Mayor
I got the opportunity, for the first time in my life, to see Mount Rushmore. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt. It’s definitely worth experiencing. Actually, any national monuments are impressive. We’ve recently been over to Washington DC. We took the Capital tour. American monuments almost universally have one theme: Freedom. It is the core ingredient…
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Day 51 – Akron Artillery Fire – On The Road To Mayor
For 15 years of my adult life I’ve worked in marketing. A good marketer knows things like: Your strengths Your weaknesses (a lot about your weaknesses) Your insecurities Your fears Where you shop Where you went to school Where you work What TV shows you watch What websites you visit The food you eat…
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Day 50 – Working Together – On The Road To Mayor
Doesn’t it seem odd to you that politicians can’t work together? Aren’t they the “leaders”? I’m pretty sure I’d get fired from any other job I worked at if I said, “Bob’s idea is completely wrong. In fact. I think Bob is trying to intentionally ruin our company.” The boss would probably say, “Stop…
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Day 48 – Great Responsibility – On The Road To Mayor
It is very easy to blame all the country’s problems on our government officials. And in fairness they never take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. And they never ask us to do anything. The last thing I recall being asked to do was when George Bush told me to go shopping. We can’t…
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Day 47 – Perspective – On The Road To Mayor
I’m writing this from Sparta Wisconsin. It’s about 600 miles from Akron. Last summer Rocky and I put together a plan to do the biggest vacation of our adult lives. We started putting a plan together to go to Yellowstone National Park. We should be in South Dakota tomorrow. We’ll be checking out the Badlands…