I was looking something up on the blog and came across a post I wrote just before the 2006 election - http://georgewimmer.blogspot.com/2006/11/full-page-re-elect-ad.html - It was illuminating to see how the former Mayor and Ms. Larson tied their campaigns together, his re-election as Mayor and her run for a third Council term. Here is an excerpt from that post:

High taxes and fees, brown/radium filled city water, transportation, rising crime, anemic commercial/industrial growth and no financial planning are issues they seem not to acknowledge. They write that this election is not about reform or change.

They want to keep the "train on the track". Their track is taking Isanti off a cliff. I could not have made my points about these two any better than they did in this expensive full page ad. Thank you.

The list of items are all ones we have greatly improved. Taxes are down 14%, our water treatment plant is being built to remove the brown/radium filled water, transportation is being improved with dollars set aside for ride share and rail service, crime is down 17%, we have had a magnificent expansion of businesses and we have a Long Term Financial Plan in place with strong budget controls.

Just wanted to share with you what might have happened if 2006 went the other way. Elections matter, lets make the 2008 election matter.