Endorsements and tough choices – Briley for Mayor

I feel compelled to say that I have no pretense that my endorsement of anyone via my blog, Salem’s Lots, has much more meaning than my yard sign. I don’t pretend that the citizens of Nashville are waiting, breath bated, for me to pronounce who they should vote for in the coming election.

So, here’s my blog yard sign, with a few more words than can fit on an actual sign.

We are lucky. We have more than one strong candidate for mayor. In the 19th District, I think we have THREE good candidates to suceed Ludye ‘cris’ Wallace*. Two of our mayoral candidates come from political lineage. One of them wouldn’t be seriously considered, in my opinion, if his father had not been a former governor of our state. The other candidate with said political ancestry, is David Briley.

Briley’s grandfather was the first mayor of Metropolitan Davidson County/Nashville. David Briley has been hearing about politics in Nashville from the time of his first steps. His step into the mayoral race is not based on political legacy, even though he was ‘to the manner borne’.

Briley probably knows as much about Nashville as anyone living here. The difference between him and many of us who call this city our home is that he has been THINKING about Nashville for most of his life. He’s a genial political wonk, who somehow has been able to transcend his ‘wonkdom’ into everyday English.

Briley’s followup to Purcell’s excellent commitment to neighborhoods is important to many of us. His commitment to environmentalism as it relates to government facilities and our city should be important to ALL of us. His courage to raise the issue of ‘environmental racism’ shows that is willing to speak out on issues that will not win him votes in all parts of town.

Briley was part of a team that performed an educational ‘miracle’ at Lockeland School and his knowledge of what it is going to take to make schools meaningful for ALL students is refreshing.

I mentioned earlier that we have hard choices. Karl Dean, if elected, will make an excellent mayor. He is probably the strongest executive ‘type’ in the bunch, but I believe Briley’s lifetime of envisioning Nashville is the best followup to two strong effective mayors.

Update: Liberadio has posted a list of bloggers for Briley. As Braisted said in the comments, the only blogger we can find who has come out for anyone else is the ‘Buck Dozier Blog’.

*I can’t speak to Ludye’s early years representing the North End, but I can honestly say that he has been the invisible man for most of the three years I’ve been living north-side. Of course, I don’t run late night poker games out of my house.

I endorsed Freda Player for the 19th in an earlier post, but am not reluctant to say that Erica Gilmore and David Shaw would serve the 19th well, if elected.