Ward 1 candidate short on specifics
At Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s State of the City address Monday night, Mike Jones ’11 was in the front row of the pews, flanked by his campaign manager, Matt Ellison ’10, and former Yale College Democrats President Ben Shaffer ’09. Sitting in the front row of the pews, Jones greeted the few aldermen he knew and shook hands with a few he did not; mostly, though, he just listened.
Four weeks have passed since Jones first announced his candidacy for the Ward 1 alderman seat.
Since then, Jones has outlined a broad platform of issues he would like to tackle as alderman, though he...
why Mr. Jones is running for this office? He doesn't seem to have any real motivation aside from personal ambition. In fact, the only time he seems to have shown any enthusiasm about a local New Haven issue was in his knee-jerk opposition to the Elm City Resident Card, a position he has since reversed for no apparent reason. His lack of specific ideas, his inability to find a single fault with the DeStefano administration, and his naive proposal of programs that are already in place all betray a lack of knowledge about or even interest in the issues he would deal with as alderman.
I hope Mr. Jones will take the time to delve into these issues and become a better candidate, but in the meantime I really hope someone else files to run. Ward 1 aldermen are usually only in office for two years - they don't have time to take a "wait and see" attitude toward major issues. If they don't come in with at least one solid proposal they'd like to focus on, they'll never make an impact on the board. I have yet to hear one reason why Mr. Jones would make a good alderman; it looks like his team is just hoping he doesn't draw any opposition so that they never have to give one. Ward 1 deserves better.
Blog post?:
Here is the cached web page:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:NfVSk3E0CQEJ:michaelbjones.blogspot.com/2007/07/illegal-immigration.html+sporadic+slants+granting+legalization+within+their+municipality+without+any+attempt+to+deter+future+illegal+immigration&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us
And here is the link to the blog, stating that the page no longer exists:
http://michaelbjones.blogspot.com/2007/07/illegal-immigration.html
As someone who strongly supports the Elm City Resident Card, I found it disturbing, upon reading this profile, that Mike Jones had such a strong visceral reaction to the Elm City Resident Card.
However, I posted the cache web page because the context actually ameliorates many of my concerns, and gives a very different picture than the YDN article.
For example, here is some of Mike's more nuanced argument: "We will eventually have to legalize everyone in this country who immigrated illegally, but if we grant that legalization before we find some way to curb illegal immigration, we're only exacerbating the problem by allowing it to perpetuate."
Of course, it was perhaps inappropriate of Mike to jump to such strong claims without knowing more information, but welcome to the blogosphere.
If people are going to criticize Mike for this, they ought to at least see it in full.
Other quotes from the above link:
"Yes, we need to change our immigration policies to make it easier for people to immigrate"
"We absolutely need to give those who immigrated here illegally citizenship (it's the only way to know who is here), but only in conjunction with a comprehensive change in border security."
And, re: Blog post?,
I, for one, believe that Mike's change of heart — regardless of how recent — is genuine, because it seems the real thing missing from the blog post was any clue as to the empirics of the situation — which he obviously now has.
Will someone please run against Mike Jones???
seconded.
I'm a tad concerned at how unbalanced and slanted this article is. The YDN is always better when it seeks to be neutral in its motives and clear in its research - muted opinion pieces are always of a low quality and questionable value. This young man probably deserves a second look as #3 mentioned.
Having been around New haven politics for a few years as an undergrad and now as a post-grad, I can say with certainty that Mike Jones is the LAST person we should be supporting in Ward 1.
Instead of modeling the Alders he has reached out to, he should instead be modeling yale grads Ben Healey and Roland Lemar - people who push the City with all the efforts, while maintaining their strong support. This is the role that we Yalies can really play.
How can you judge this young man by only considering who he has reached out to? He is not responsible for the conduct of these other Aldermen who you may not like. Let him present his vision for his term, and judge him on that.
Instead of judging him on one story written by an amateur journalist, you should give him a chance. Listen to what he has to say.
Where is Mike's July 2007 blog post on the Elm City Resident Card now? I've searched his blog (http://michaelbjones.blogspot.com) but it seems that he has taken it down.
Also, how recent was Mike's change of heart on this issue? Given how important the issue has been to Ward 1 voters, we deserve to hear in greater depth how and why his thinking evolved.