Phil Cranmer has announced that he will challenge Council Member Rick Mohrig in the 2023 District 3 race for City Council. My initial impression is that Cranmer is a fine, upstanding, decent, and accomplished individual. Following are links to Mr. Cranmer’s campaign website, campaign Facebook page, and LinkedIn profile:
I am also providing a link to Council Member Mohrig’s LinkedIn page. I was unable to find an active political website or political FB page for Mr. Mohrig but will post them if/when they become available. Mohrig recently posted a Campaign Contribution Disclosure Report (CCDR) that indicates (as of the end of June) his campaign has recently neither received nor expended monies and furthermore, that he currently has $0 in his campaign fund. If Mohrig does run for re-election, it will herald the first competitive election in District 3 since 2011.
A few weeks ago, Doug Hene announced his run for the District 2 council seat. Hene and Cranmer’s candidacies are positive for Milton. Competitive elections will force much needed debate about the important issues facing Milton.
On paper, both Hene and Cranmer are formidable candidates. Milton’s 2023 elections may herald the final transition of city government from Milton 1.0 to Milton 2.0. Out with the old, in with the new. And make no mistake about it, Milton desperately needs a clean break with its dark political past. Milton would benefit from new representatives with fresh ideas.
Let me be direct. Council Members Paul Moore and Rick Mohrig represent the last rotting vestiges of the old regime . . . political dinosaurs limping along in Milton’s political landscape wreaking havoc as they lumber along. Both ran in Milton’s first council races in 2006. Mohrig ran unopposed and slid onto Milton’s inaugural council while Moore lost in a 5-person race (failing to make it to the run-off). In his only competitive race in his political career, Mohrig lost decisively to Alan Tart in 2007. However, Mohrig was able to slip back onto council through an appointment in 2013 to complete the term of Lance Large, who moved out of Milton. Thereafter, Mohrig ran unopposed in 2013, 2015 and 2019 and has now served 10 consecutive years on council. It’s enough.
Moving onto Paul Moore. Capitalizing on the momentum from Laura Bentley’s historic landslide victory in 2017, Paul Moore won election to council in 2019. However, Moore served on the Planning Commission since the city’s founding in 2006 and served as an operative in various campaigns since that time and his election in 2019.
I continue to believe that neither Moore nor Mohrig will seek re-election now that they have competitors. Due largely to the misbehavior of Moore and Mohrig over the past 15+ months, there is a strong anti-incumbent sentiment flowing through the electorate in Milton. Past elections demonstrate that Miltonites are not shy about showing rascals the door. The last straw for many voters (and for Mr. Cranmer, I am told) was the denial of a polling location for District 3. This colossal political blunder put a huge political target on Moore and Mohrig’s backs. Blame hubris or stupidity . . . probably some of both, in my opinion. I remind readers that Moore and Mohrig 1) led the Election “Feasibility” Committee and 2) supported eliminating a District 3 polling location in favor of a District 2 polling location and then voted against adding back a 3rd voting location (for District 3), along with Council Members Jan Jacobus and Andrea Verhoff. The hyper-partisan feasibility committee originally met in secret, keeping little/no records of these meetings. I have a real problem with current politicians designing elections (behind closed doors and leaving no records) in which they will run . . . who thought this was a good idea? (Note: Later election feasibility committee meetings were advertised and open to the public, and records were maintained.)
Let me again be direct. Moore and Mohrig (Team M&M) cannot run on their records. During the previous 15 months, Team M&M has wreaked havoc in Milton . . . intruding into minor HOA issues, engaging in serious unethical behavior, and designing unfair, nonsensical municipal elections. And my understanding is that there is more to come regarding Milton’s election design/implementation. Despite wrapping up their election feasibility work months ago, Moore and Mohrig apparently have continued to intrude (behind the scenes) in Milton’s election design/implementation–specifically the hiring of an elections consultant. Responses to Open Records Requests (ORRs) submitted by Appen Media show a disturbing pattern of intrusion, particularly by Mr. Mohrig. Additional ORRs are being processed that should shed more light on Milton’s hiring of its elections consultant.
So what does this mean for the 2023 election? It means Team M&M must distract voters from their sorry records, particularly their ethical misbehavior. They must find some incident—however insignificant—and blow it out to proportion so they can say “see, my opponent is just as unethical as I am.” It is the classic Make-A-Mountain-Out-of-a-Molehill strategy. Such an effort is currently underway regarding Tuesday’s DRB meeting. Former Council Member Laura Bentley appears to be one of M&M’s surrogates leading the charge on this DRB issue. I will write more about this DRB issue once I’ve gathered the facts. So far, my impression is that the DRB incident is much ado about nothing . . . almost entirely political posturing. It is like equating jaywalking to grand larceny. It is a strategy that assumes voters are morons and can be easily duped. Perhaps other places, this might work . . . but not in Milton. And through this blog, I will strive to assist citizens in applying the principle of proportionality to ethics in Milton.
Lastly, it is my hope that the entrance of two strong insurgent candidates in Districts 2 and 3 might encourage a similarly strong insurgent candidate to run in District 1 and challenge Council Member Carol Cookerly. A full slate of formidable insurgent candidates would be helpful to all candidates on the slate.
Following is a link to the City of Milton website where you can find candidates’ financial disclosure statements. These are interesting to see who is contributing, how campaign money is being spent, etc.
Milton Campaign Finance Reports
Advocating For Good Governance,
Tim
Milton Coalition 