A warm seat, drug-sniffing dogs or UFOs...

Ursula Reed is beautiful and nice. Morgan Mack-Rose is intense and serious, I'm not sure I've ever seen her smile.  Dan Dillman just makes you laugh.  But who are these three and what would they mean for San Leandro?

We know about Ursula Reed.  She's the incumbent, has held the position for four years.  The most we can say about her is that she warms seats nicely.  She has yet to propose or carry out any policy, though she was instrumental on getting free ipads for all City Council members and high-level staff.  She is generous with her praise of staff and police and will usually do what they recommend she does.  However, she wants to be re-elected so she's pulled away from them on a couple of votes (the most recently).  Of course, once she is re-elected, she'll have no reason not to go along with staff on everything.

I'm not sure that she has any political views as such, but you could describe them as conservative Democrat.  She's a school administrator, a single mom of a kid at Bishop O'Dowd. 

Ursula can expect support from Police & Firefighters and the African-American business/political network.

Morgan Mack-Rose is the current President of the San Leandro School Board and the parent of two girls at Washington Elementary.  Her performance at the School Board has been "blah".  They've been able to come up with balanced budgets, but they're required by law to do that.  They've had to withstand a lot of heat from teachers and parents, so I guess you could say she's used to being yelled at.  She is not particularly good, however, at communicating with the community and explaining the Board's actions. 

At the School Board, Mack-Rose has shown no interest in pushing any type of curriculum reform or doing anything to stop the exodus of middle class parents from schools.  She has, however, succeeded in antagonizing the teachers union and apparently the labor movement in general.

More disturbingly, for those of us who care about good government and civil liberties, Mack-Rose seems to believing in governing from "the gut" rather than making well thought out decisions, based on facts and exploring their consquences.  When a in 2011, she immediately suggested a "surge" and tried to get drug-sniffing dogs to patrol the hallways (despite the fact that the Chief of Police said that was a terrible idea).  I actually fear what type of daft ideas she'll come up with if she gets spooked by anything.

Mack-Rose is the "Chamber" candidate on this race, she has strong ties with lobbiest Gordon Galvan (who also has strong ties with Mayor Cassidy).

Full disclosure: I coordinated Mack-Rose' the first part of her campaign when she run for School Board in 2008.

Dan Dillman is a hoot.  The man owns a computer repair business which he operates from the Bal Theater.  He's been to make it a viable business every since he bought it.  He can't do it showing movies alone, so he needs to show live entertainment.  Legally, he has the right to do it.  The City says no and has been trying to shut him down.  It's your usual "little guy vs. big government" story.

That story got more interesting a few months ago when two plain-closes deputies from the Sheriff department appeared at his theater to interview someone working there.  They didn't identify themselves, they spooked up his wife, and all of this led to a confrontation.  Dan was hurt, , complained on TV, which meant he got prosecuted and .  He's appealing.

Dan is a very interesting sort of guy. He calls himself a "a treasure hunter researcher and explorer" and, among many things, produced a professional documentary on his granfather's quest for Montezuma's Treasure and the Lost City of Gold.  At the Bal, he holds an annual 2-day UFO conference where he hosts "experts" from all over the country.  Think all of that strange? Me too, but then again, Mitt Romney believes that good Mormons can become gods and rule over their own planets, and he's running for President!

From a political perspective, Dan's beliefs are probably the most alligned with my own.  He is a strong supporter of individual liberty and of having a government that helps people and small businesses, rather than put roadblock after roadbloack trying to stop them from succeeding. He is also in favor of government transparency and accountability - which are mere words for Reed and Mack-Rose.

If there is one thing of which I'm sure is that if he's elected, he will not be a puppet of City Staff as Reed is, nor will be calling on the state troops if we have a drive-by shooting, as I'd fear Mack-Rose would. 

So so far my support is on for the UFO guy.