It delights me to pass along some good news in Milton politics. (Please forward this email to family, friends, and neighbors.)
Doug Hene (pronounced “Haney”), a longtime resident of Milton, has announced his candidacy for City Council. Mr. Hene has filed a Declaration of Intent (DOI) to raise and spend money for his campaign. Hene has also issued a press release. Should Paul Moore run for re-election, Milton will have a competitive city council race for District 2, Post 2. This is good news. Competitive races force discussion and debate about important issues; help to ensure accountability; and theoretically should result in better representation.
Unfortunately, competitive city council races are relatively rare in Milton. Since 2009, less than 25% of council seats have been contested. Since 2009, there have been NO competitive District 3 races. Furthermore, lack of contested races in Milton is in marked contrast to Milton’s sister cities, where all races in 2021 were competitive. Milton’s lack of electoral accountability is often evidenced by incompetent and dishonest representation on city council. It is also evidenced by a lack of integrity and accountability among many City Hall staff. In the absence of consequences for failure, citizens have witnessed a proliferation of failure—the latest example being a $35M judgment against Milton in the wrongful death of a motorist resulting from the city’s gross negligence in maintaining its roadways.
Following are some useful links about Mr. Hene, including his LinkedIn profile, his campaign website (at this time, only a fund-raising page), and his DOI. I am also attaching Hene’s candidacy announcement.
Council Member Paul Moore has not yet announced whether he will seek re-election. However, in fairness to Mr. Moore, I am including links to Moore’s LinkedIn profile; his candidate website (there is nothing there right now); his campaign Facebook page (inactive since 2019); and his latest campaign finance report. At my Bits and Pieces page ( Milton Coalition Bits and Pieces Page), I provide my prediction about whether Moore will run and my opinion about whether he should run . . . the answers might surprise you.
Moore Latest Campaign Finance Report
As I did in 2021, I will eventually create a separate page at the blog that provides candidate information for all council candidates (without any commentary) so that citizens have a one-stop-shop for candidate information useful for making voting decisions. This will include candidate websites, LinkedIn profiles, newspaper stories, etc.
In 2023, there will be a competitive race in each of Milton’s 3 districts. We can only hope that other candidates will step forward to challenge the incumbent in District 1 (Carol Cookerly) and the incumbent in District 3 (Rick Mohrig). Both have run unopposed in their last 2 elections.
Advocating For Good Governance,
Tim
Note: I have never communicated with Doug Hene, but hope to engage him soon to better understand his candidacy. During the 2023 elections, I will offer all candidates for city council, including those running unopposed, an opportunity to engage voters through my blog.
Milton Coalition 