Who is Chester’s Most Effective Politician?
16 - Senator Pileggi
16 - St. Rep. Kirkland
4 - Mayor Butler
2 - City Councilwoman Walker-Smith
I’ll admit the survey question was purposely ambiguous. How do you measure effectiveness? Do you vote for the person that does the most for Chester or vote for the Chester politician that does the most for his constituents, even if they serve outside of Chester?
However you read the question, I never expected the results to be so lopsided. Pileggi and Kirkland have proven that even without the Chester vote during elections they win their respective seats. That means that they owe Chester nothing. Thankfully, they give Chester a lot.
But if a non-Chester person was State Senator and State Rep (which could happen) do these result really say the mayor and city council are ineffective? Are Dominic and Thaddeus really running this city?
When we revisit this survey, I will have you vote just on Chester City politicians so we can get a real feel of what you think of our leaders. Maybe to match them up with our State politicians was not a fair comparison.
What are your conclusions on the survey results?
I think that was a great synopsis of the survey. However, I feel that it still was unbalanced in the sense that Pileggi far outscores Kirkland in being effective. People may no like his personality, but he turned the city around and continues to work magic for Chester. I only wonder if the money will freeze up and his power if the Republicans no longer control Chester. Like you said, he does not win Chester and does not need Chester in his district. It's more of a black eye for his political future because people don't vote for him despite all of the work that he has done for the community.
ReplyDeleteKirkland and Pillegi have been representating their parties at a very high level for a long time. They both have been good for Chester and we can argue that they probably can do more. Until they prove to be totally inept I can't see where a fresh faced challenger could amass the resources, contacts, or savvy to wield any influence on Harrisburg to help Chester. We are fortunate to have the both and should learn to engage them better.
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