Brave New Hope and Pension Thoughts!

April 17- Did you see Councilwoman Hope Kasper at last week’s budget hearing with the Mayor Tuesday night?  Well if you did, you sure missed one hell of a battle as Ms. Kasper took the bull by the horns and asked Mayor Daniel T. Drew question after question about the pension fund that Drew’s budget proposal has reduced the amount of funding that will be proposed to be paid into the pension fund.   Kasper was frustrated at times when Deputy Mayor Robert Santangelo called on new Councilman Todd Berch to give his input about Drew’s proposed city pension plan.   Kasper attempted to speak her words of wisdom about the pension plan and became quite upset when Santangelo called her speech, “out of line,” and continued to hear Councilman Berch’s take on the pension situation. 

“Oh, you listen to his point a view about the pension and not mine,” Kasper said harshly to the deputy mayor. “Is it because he is a man?” she asked as she shrugged in her chair.  It is the opinion of this writer that (seriously) Councilwoman Kasper showed courage and confidence at challenging the status quo of her party.  Good for you Hope, keep up the good fight.  One should recall a few years ago the plight of Democrat Debbie Kleckowski whose unpopular views on the Planning and Zoning Committee made her a Democrat target: thus she was quickly outed from the party. (I.e. Had independent views and is a woman??? Mmm, Hope is quite independent and is a woman. See a pattern?) In a strange twist of fate and karma, Kleckowsk swapped her party affiliation from DEM to GOP and was successfully was elected to an office on Middletown's Common Council.  Will  history repeat itself?

The Insider predicts:  Hope Kasper will not be running for Common Council or any other office on the Democrat ticket in 2013.  Don't get it? They will kick her off for having the goNads to stand her ground and speak her mind.   If you don’t agree to go with the Dem flow, (I.e. keep your mouth shut) then you pay the price, and in this case it’s Kasper’s political future.  Will she pull a Christine Bourne and run for mayor against her party? Will she change parties and  primary Earl V. Roberts (Note: Earl's orange vest jacket may be running on the Green Party Ticket) on the GOP side and hope to take the mayor’s office from that angle?   Here are some more predictions about some hopeful Mayoral candidates for 2013:

1)   Barbara Plum- Wants to run for Mayor but spends too much time in Middletown.

2)   Roy Krieger- Would force the city to buy two Mayor mobiles, which would drive the conservatives nutty?

3)   Shannon Blair- Could be a great mayor due to his high connections with city hall.

4)   Ralph Nader- Has to run for something

5)   Mayor McCheese- Has previous executive experience at McDonaldLand; was able to bring the budget in under a billion burgers.

6)   The Cantina- According to the charter, a building is not allowed to run for office. Note: They can have members of The Working Families Party sign their petition.

7)   Michael Johnson- Started as a Working Families party candidate and lost and then when he was appointed to replace a member of the P and Z commission became a Democrat quite quickly.  Hater? Nope, how was he able to change his party that quickly?

8)   Earl V. Roberts: Trust me he wants it so badly! He works on Roberts for Mayor signs in his barn. “Got Taxes?”

9)   Any Republican with the initials S.G. (It's worked three times so far)

10) Sal  C.– Would go to war with Portland and Cromwell and if he won would demand that his seat is next to T.S. and B.S.  “Nuff Said.”