KCY's election special: Mayor

The two candidates for mayor are John Hieftje and Eric Plourde. Hieftje is the current mayor, and has been for the last eight years, which I am embarrassed to say I didn't know. Hieftje is a democrat and Plourde is libertarian.

What else should you know about these two before voting? Here's something: Plourde is 20 years old and is an undergrad at Michigan. There's his senior picture for you on the left. He wants to lower the drinking age in the city to 18 "so that those caught drinking do not have a Minor in Possession Charge on their record that they have to disclose on graduate school or job applications." Also, he believes the marijuana fine of $25 is too high. He is supported by Ron Paul, was a summer baseball camp coach in Lake Orion, and served over 100 hours of community service before attending the University of Michigan.

Lol, next thing you know I'll be running for mayor.

Seriously though, it's not that I don't support him because he is young. If he had good ideas and knew what he was doing, I'd be all for it. Even if he just had one thing he wanted to change about Ann Arbor because he passionately believed in it, or he wanted to show young people in Ann Arbor that they can make a difference, I might consider voting for him just to show support. But to me it sounds like made a bet with his buddies that he could run for office, and he doesn't really stand for anything. The four "issues" listed on his website are lowering taxes, protecting personal freedoms, trolleys being expensive, and new housing. He is running on a platform that is meant to appeal to the students of the city because that is his only hope to gather support. Lower the drinking age to 18? Yikes. This is like when you ran for student government in elementary school and promised that, if elected, the drinking fountains would be filled soda instead of water. Give me a break.