Turns out Greg Fischer wasn’t so honest when interviewed by A Kentucky Newspaper regarding staff changes last week. He says he’s had very little staff turnover. Reality? He lost a scheduler and he let Jamiel go, in addition to Lisa Tanner walking away. So much for honesty, huh? And those are people you don’t just randomly let leave your campaign. They also have been known to stick with very difficult situations (see: Mongiardo, Daniel and Horne, Andrew).
Wait. It gets better.
Fischer said this about his new campaign manager, a guy with some taint following him:
“I like the fact that he had run or overseen successful mayoral campaigns in a metro area about our size and was also a chief of staff for a mayor whose budget is approximately the same size as Louisville’s.”
Uh, you ready, kids?
Providence, RI has a population of roughly 171,000. While the Providence metro area is larger, it’s part of Boston’s combined statistical area. Louisville has a population of roughly 700,000.
The Providence city budget is about $495 million. Louisville’s is, what?, $800 million-ish. Providence maintains its school budget in its general fund, jacking things up to about $620 million. We obviously don’t do that. If we did, we’d be at something like $1.3 or $1.4 billion. There are 23,000 students in the Providence school system. Louisville’s got about 100,000. See what I’m saying?
Additionally, Jefferson County’s total employment in 2008 was 538,283. Providence? 355,861. That’s a huge difference.
Does Greg Fischer know nothing about the city he wants to run? No wonder he takes pages and pages of notes during meetings – he’s wholly unaware and isn’t bothering to educate himself before he speaks or meets with folks.
Maybe he should stick to holding dinner parties where he doesn’t turn on the air conditioning, talking down to actual elected officials like he’s a condescending John Kerry.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Edmund // Jul 26, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I don’t mind not using AC, reduces energy consumption. I still don’t Fischer as our next mayor though. We’re in a real pickle, stuck between Heiner and Fischer because not enough people will vote third party, not that Jackie inspires huge amounts of confidence but I would find him preferable. Damn people in Lville and their stupid primary choices.
2 Steve Magruder // Jul 26, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Shouldn’t Fischer have spent the several years before this campaign getting to know his own city? The whispers going around suggest he’s still trying to get educated on many matters he should have already known about. Yeah, he’s an outsider — so outside he doesn’t know Louisville.
3 jake // Jul 26, 2010 at 1:17 pm
It’s not a whisper that he doesn’t know much about Louisville outside of the society pages.
It’s a reality.
Just ask anybody meeting with him.
Reality: He’s more than a year into this and still doesn’t know the details of Louisville’s budget!
4 Steve Magruder // Jul 26, 2010 at 1:42 pm
This is certainly a very good general opening for the Heiner camp — They could say: “Why doesn’t Fischer know much about the city he has lived in for a long time? Did he just start to become politically aware about local issues the day he announced he was running?”
5 jake // Jul 26, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Even if he didn’t know much about the city before deciding to get political… shouldn’t he have learned during his bid for the U.S. Senate?
6 Steve Magruder // Jul 26, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Good point.
7 The Highlander // Jul 26, 2010 at 10:18 pm
So Fischer doesn’t know anything. His sister (who’s running his life) lives in another city. His campaign manager is from Rhode Island and his only other known adviser is a Happy Pants flack (Poynter). Man this is bad.
8 jake // Jul 26, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Lynn lives at 1400 Willow. Which is like living in a different city.
9 The Highlander // Jul 27, 2010 at 8:02 am
Jake: check that address for the last 10 years. Her business and adult history finds her FAR FAR AWAY from Louisville. 1400 Willow is a present ‘convenience.’
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