Political signs make appearance at Rendezvous
As in years past, a few political street signs flashed by thousands of eyes at the Route 66 Rendezvous this weekend ...
A few conspicuous Marianne Miligan signs were visible along Arrowhead Avenue Saturday. The signs were blue, with Milligan's name in neon. An image of the "scales of justice" were also featured.
The Milligan campaign has kicked into high gear this week, with a major fundraising event at an E Street Deli on Thursday generating plenty of buzz. Mayor Pat Morris also made his long-anticipated endorsement of Milligan, and issued a press release replete with barbed rhetoric aimed at incumbent James F. Penman.
Milligan's Thursday event drew a who's who of local political elites. It's not clear just how much the breadth of Milligan's coalition of top business leaders and politicos will help her in her race against Penman, who is a formidable campaigner and battle-hardened political in-fighter.
What is apparent is that Penman, with shrinking support in City Hall and with the unions (witness the noisy split with police union President Rich Lawhead), will squeeze plenty of mileage out of his familiar righteous outsider, hard-on-crime, quasi-populist image.
Interest in the race is so pitched that the mere appearance of 3rd Ward Councilman Tobin Brinker at Milligan's fundraiser stirred bloggers and other observers.
We reported it here, while city clerk candidate Joseph Turner broke first with a more detailed account on the RedCounty Republican blog, even noting Brinker's purportedly enthusiastic applause.
Brinker opted to respond to Turner's account. He didn't dispute its accuracy, but emphasized that he attended a similar event for the Penman campaign. The "work with all" style, which Brinker has worked hard over the last year to establish, predictably won him ambivalence among the RedCounty crowd.
Back to the original point, Milligan has a viable, well-supported campaign, as evidenced by Thursday's gala and this weekend's opportunistic advertising.
The people of San Bernardino, and the surrounding areas impacted by what happens here, are all thankful their one shining hope for change, Marianne Milligan, was awake at the wheel this weekend!
People were glad to see that Marianne Milligan is ready, willing and supremely capable to rejuvenate and reintegrate the office of San Bernardino City Attorney with the community it serves. Her signs provided tangible proof!
People know handpicked Marianne Milligan is to replace Penman, and would have were he not to have been beaten by a 1:3 margin in his bid for mayor, so her capability is a mute point this election and her capability to shine on the campaign trail was seen as an affirmation of her abilities. Her signs let everyone know: help is on the here!
People tired of Penman’s raids on businesses leaving us with vacant lots, a lessened tax base and unsavory types relocated next door to us were happy to see Marianne Milligan signs on display. Her signs showed us the scales of justice will return to an equitable balance; we will no longer have an autocrat slicing off our nose to spite our face, smearing our town in the media to gain a moment in the spotlight and perhaps another news clipping to plaster the city hall city attorney office walls with as his own brand of graffiti!
People ready for EDA and other funds to be used for rehabilitating rental housing in situ, rather than the drama of soft-palmed Penman in a hardhat by bulldozers removing apartments so that the tenants were forced to find housing elsewhere – in neighborhoods previously free of them and their problems, in previously sedate neighborhoods now thumping with music at all hours, were overjoyed to see Marianne Milligan signs this weekend!
People waiting for the day the office of city attorney would no longer be off-limits to all comers were glad to see Marianne Milligan signs decorating their vistas!
People who thought the way things have always been were the way they would always be were pleasantly surprised by Marianne Milligan signs this weekend. Some of these people are old enough to vote now but have known no other city attorney, nor any opposition to city attorney, in their lifetimes and wondered what the point to some elections was until now!
People who are tired of reporting problems only to see them allowed to escalate until reaching a newsworthy level, then addressed like novelties with photo ops and press releases were thrilled to see Marianne Milligan signs around town!
People who do not appreciate offers of a one-way bus ticket as the overly simplistic and seemingly racist response to issues by a city attorney were all smiles over Marianne Milligan signs entering the landscape!
People who came nowhere near Stater Brother’s Route 66 Rendezvous were pleasantly enjoying an annual church picnic in the park (Temple Missionary Baptist Church, at Anne Shirrells Park ) and glad to know the fellowship, polite conversations, respect for their brethren and so on are qualities they may now have prayers answered for! I am still deciding what was sweeter: the chocolate cake, yellow cake, or, news of Marianne Milligan being a viable candidate! I’ll go with Marianne ~ she will last longer!
People who are tired of panhandlers at the drive-thru order area, the pharmacy parking lot, the bank, the gasoline station and just about everywhere in between are thankful someone else is finally going to try. Penman has not been able to think of anything to make it better – the silly little cards his 3rd wife was promoting through the Chamber of Commerce were a flop. After all, we are not interested in moonlighting as free social workers, we are interested in going about our daily tasks without being accosted, intimidated – or worse. These people wanted to hand out Marianne Milligan signs, not here you go, Mr. Panhandler cards! I may have seen a Panhandlers For Penman sign, but there are so many panhandlers with and without signs, it’s hard to keep track!
People who are sick of having the same old dish of crow served up to them after expecting results from those elected to serve relished the change of fare Marianne Milligan signs foretell!
People who feel that are castaways, tossing in a turbulent sea of woes with no end in sight grabbed for the lifeline finally within their grasp in the form of Marianne Milligan For City Attorney signs!
People who wanted to learn about learning, or spend a pleasant day in nature, by attending the Genesis 9 function in Perris Hill Park’s Roosevelt Bowl were excited by the signs’ way of expressing opportunities for bettering the city, as they better their lives, were comforted by seeing the signs of promise that Marianne Milligan being ready to rescue us isn’t hyperbole!
People attending a Jaffra party, including the presenter from out of town, were as ready to wipe away Penman as they were to wipe away the beauty products from their faces and welcomed a woman stepping up to get the job done, as they are confident only a woman can! They want me to go get more Marianne Milligan for City Attorney signs for them to share around town.
That reminds me, the post seems to suggest Marianne Milligan for City Attorney placed the signs everywhere. That is not true; the signs were available, at no cost whatsoever, to the hundreds of people who went to Ray’s Diner, Thursday evening. Some people only took 1, 2 or 3 of the signs to place at their homes & businesses. Others took them by the dozen. I took as many as I could carry and now wish I had stocked up with more, to avoid needing to go get more for all the people asking me for them!
And, as for advertising being opportunistic: That’s the only kind that works! Who ever saw a 4th of July parka, or, a Christmas bikini ad? Embrace the reality that this is election season in San Bernardino and the ads are going to continue non-stop up until the moment we are 50 feet ( or is it yards?) from our respective polling places and the polls close!
Marianne Milligan signs are everywhere because people who support her are everywhere!
Jim Penman may have taken note when at Bette Dean Andersen’s non-press conference to show his support, with Wendy McCammack, for the least physically and otherwise prepared candidate on the ballot this time around, and decided to stay home this weekend covering the “for Mayor” portion of his old signs with duct tape and scrawling over the tape with, “for City Attorney”, similar to the way Bette Dean Anderson placed used duct tape to cover her RE-elect portion of leftover campaign signs in order to have to show!
Who knows for sure?
Whatever the reason, his absence from San Bernardino’s traditional kick-off week, despite holding invitation only canapé parties for his cronies as far back as July and surely having enough funds to get some signs out on time leaves some wondering, was Jim Penman asleep at the wheel, again? Did he simply forget? Did a parolee steal his signs? Was he distracted by something of paramount importance to him, like a photo op? Was he out preparing for divorce court, again? (Nah, this wife is too politically convenient to dump for a fresher one ~ he can always go for something fresh at the office, to hear his former staff members tell it ~ and hold on to this one for the sake of political expediency, if nothing else!) But no expediency will be able to overcome the Milligan for City Attorney bandwagon ~ it is far too dedicated and determined to see to it that this one chance in 20 years isn’t missed, leaving us stuck with another 20 years of bad to worse to woeful from the city attorney’s office!
s/ San Bernardino Wants Marianne Milligan For City Attorney!