Last week both Mayor Emily Larson and City Councilor Arik Forsman proudly tweeted about their involvement with the Biden campaign.
The Mayor talked about how each day she makes time to do three things for VP Biden, while Forsman shared an interesting story about one of his Biden phonebank calls.
Let’s ignore, for now, the promotion of their partisan political views while holding non-partisan city government seats. Sharing your political views is fine for any average citizen to do, but if you hold a non-partisan office, it’s a little, as the kids say, “cringy”.
The Lake Superior Drug Task Force had an incredible win last week, taking several people into custody during a drug bust, and while they deserve a big pat on the back (or whatever the COVID alternative to that is), we can’t be too excited when the overall scoreboard shows that Duluth is being beaten mercilessly on most fronts.
So it’s frustrating to see city leaders proudly wasting time (or, excuse me, “making time”) to stump for a national candidate when their attention is desperately needed right out their front doors.
Did either of them make time today to do three things for Duluth?
Do they make time each day to focus on solving our communities homeless crisis?
Have they taken the time to come up with a plan to clean up the filth and nastiness that has become part of the downtown scene?
Have they worked the phones to find new businesses and economic opportunities for Duluth?
Are they giving Duluth as much attention each day as they are this national election? If they are, it’s clearly been as ineffective as the time they are wasting trying to convince people to vote for Biden, because our city is slowly eroding more each day.
City leaders: It’s time to be a little less proud of your politics and a little more steadfast in your focus on our local issues.