The Third Ward
Ahhh, the third ward. One of the most controversial figures on the current council is the current third ward alderman, Keith Meyer. This race will be an interesting one, as a rematch of two years ago when Bill Boom was defeated by only 9 votes. With 16 undervotes in the ward, that had to be painful.
Keith Meyer
Keith has been a lightning rod on the city council since his very first day. He has stood up for neighborhoods and stood against the establishment. His distaste for certain staff members is as obvious as their frustration with him. Keith has no website and didn’t respond to my e-mail request for his top issues. EDIT – Keith has put up a blog you can find here.
Strengths - Keith’s supporters are avid. His stepping up against a city administration which has ignored and been a roadblock for struggling neighborhoods has gained him loyalty. He also has gained support by constantly questioning city spending and finding serveral irregularities.
Weaknesses - Keith’s more recent actions have made even his most loyal fans question him, and he seems to not heed their advice to choose his battles. While choosing the most important topics and spending the rest of his energy building alliances seems to be a no-brainer, Keith continues to jump in full force against anything he feels is wrong. Keith does have a very good working relationship with some city workers, although that is not common knowledge and he is largely seen as an antagonist to the city worker. Keith has also been labeled as having a negative view of Davenport, including his statement that E-Serve workers wouldn’t choose to live in Davenport (which I very much disagree with).
Bill Boom
Bill was Keith’s competitor in the election last year. He has a website at http://billboom.com/. His list of community service shows a long history of leadership including work in the Coast Guard as well as successfully running a business in downtown Davenport. His top issues are Leadership (bringing an end to conflict), Professionalism, Activism and Team Building.
Strengths – Bill has strong leadership skills and has ideas for his ward. He talks about transparency in the city government as well as creating a 3rd ward stakeholders team to involve citizen’s in the government process. His ideas of working together with both citizen’s and city staff sound promising.
Weaknesses – Keith has extreme loyalty from many of his supporters and Bill is going to face some resistance because he isn’t Keith. He will need to prove he has the ability to listen to and stand up for his constituents in order to win them over. His constituents seem to want a representative who doesn’t just go with the flow.
Summary
This will be a very interesting race. I tend to suspect that the controversy surrounding Keith will have a negative impact on his campaign. This is really too close to call but I have a feeling Bill will edge out Keith this time around. But I have been known to be wrong – sometimes. EDIT – It appears Keith has decided to campaign after all, including starting a blog. This will be a tough race to predict.
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Keith is honest and hard working. You will never find a better man for the job than Keith Meyer.
Keith is irrelevant.
Boom is a bit controlling and he does not listen to others. He thinks he does, but I tell you that he does not. He has his own agenda. Sometimes it is the same as the ward members, sometimes not. A few examples include: The DAI group he headed was notorious for not including the public, including the neighborhood groups. He then had the nerve to tell people that everyone was included. He is running around telling people that the neighborhood around the John Lewis cafe wants another meal site there. Bu there has been a group of neighbors there actually advocating for a private use to elevate the stature and safety of the neighborhood. He also advocated for Habitat for Humanity during the Warren street lien foregivness debate – instead of the neighborhood and the best interest of the 3rd ward. I don’t know why he is running really. He doesn’t seem to be in touch with the residents of the 3rd ward. I have heard people from the Goldcoast aren’t support him. That tell you something when the people in the neighborhood where you live, don’t support you. Not sure about Meyer, I don’t know him. All I know is that he seems to look out for the people.
Boom did listen to ONE person at those DAI meetings, and that was Lubell.
Boom is buds with Carnihan, and if you`ve heard him speak, you know that neither one of them should be considered for the Alderman Position.
Oh I don’t know – I like Tom Carnahan and think he would be a fine alderman. I do not care for Boom though. I hate when he uses the word stakeholder. I just think that he will not represent the real people of his ward. He will represent the developers and Davenport One as well as the landlords. You NEVER see him taking a firm stand against the deplorable conditions of some of the rentals in his ward. Snarky – you list him as an activist – you description couldn’t be farther then the truth. An activist is someone who fights for what they believe in. Boom doesn’t fight for anything.
Snarky: Keith has a website now that is just loaded with interesting tidbits.
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Does Bill Boom have a family?
He has a partner named I think Jimmy. Jimmy – is that you? Bill’s boyfriend is one of the nicest guys. Bill may be th efirst gay councilman in Davenport.
I visited Keith’s blog. If you want to comment you have to register your email & name, no anonymous posting. I won’t provide that information to any blog, it is a matter of privacy.
These types of sites seem to attract only supporters of the blog author and limits the scope of comments. Cruiser’s blog is the same way and seems to get few comments compared to other sites.
As far as interesting tidbits, there’s stuff posted that you can not read because you can’t scroll the page. One document seems as though it might contain client attorney privilege information.
Today’s post about his early morning wanderings leaves me wondering what his point was, but it is nice to know that the Buesings are committed to help keep Davenport clean. A simple thank you would have been appropriate.
Except for today’s post, it’s old news presented as archived posts as though the site had been around for some time. If it is brand new and today’s post is the first, how can it have archives?
The site was pretty much what I had expected. I suspect the site will demonstrate Meyer’s lack of relevant focus on issues.
Meyer does have a very loyal voter block, no question. But Boom also has a very dedicated voters. Boom has broad support that will go to the polls to unseat Meyer with great passion. Boom’s supporters showed up in the primary in 05′ with 11 candidates to choose from, and when all said & done came 21 votes shy of the incumbent. Then lost by 9 in the general.Primary of 07′ Boom wins by 40 votes, which is a 61 vote swing to Boom from the 05′primary, and as close as this race is, that vote swing is huge advantage to Boom. Snarky…you are correct, this is going to be another close race, I feel Boom takes the incumbent this go around.
P.S. I have also heard that Greg Dyer that lost in the primary is coming out for Boom with help/endorsement of some kind. That could be another hurdle for the incumbent if Dyer can get his suopporters to vote Boom. It could be the nail in the coffin for Meyer.
Comment 10, hope you are correct. I believe Meyer’s support is back-sliding. There is the core, but, is it enpugh – probably not.
comment 11. Thank you. I also feel that Keith’s support due to his “missteps” has put him into bad light with many in the ward that might have send him back to the chamber. But many in the ward are not pro Keith, and for that matter, not pro Boom either. But looking at the #’s, and the anti- incumbent sediment, I think Boom really is in a great position to win those waffeling away from Meyer. At one point they viewed Meyer as “not the problem at city hall”. But now have taken a different opinion of Meyer. They view city hall as a circus currently, and Meyer is not the solution. Many find him as the ring leader of most of it.
I have no horse in this race, but really agree with Sharky’s assessment of this race. I think this is a make, or break for Boom. I have heard that he & and his campaign are working the ward. If that is true, that will pay huge for Boom, compared to the “I don’t seem to care” Meyer campaign. Turnout will tell for both camps.
Dyer is nothing more than a plant by Lubell. His voters will have no bearing on this election.
Walnut, what makes you think he was a Lubell plant?
Meyer had demonstrated growth earlier in this term but the past several months even his strongest and most vocal supporters have started to distance themselves. Time for new blood in the 3rd ward. I don’t know if Boom will be right for Davenport either but I do know that Meyer is definitely wrong.
Snarky,
Little birdies told me. Now look at who he is supporting. I have been involved with the DAI and I can tell you Boom is also “hanging” with the dirty boys.
I dont know who your “little” birdies are, but you need to find more reliable “Birdies” if you are going to make that alligation about Boom being cozy with Lubell. Also, if you are so involved with the DIA, you would know this. Mr. Boom has nothing to do with Lubell, and his group….this I DO know for a fact. The key word here is the word FACTS. Obviously, you dont have any.
Words out and you can’t hide it. There is no compromise when it comes to my neighborhood. Compromise seems to be what Boom likes to use. Sorry, if you come to “my sandbox” you play by my rules. If you don’t like it, go home! Davenport sorely needs leaders that do not compromise with special interest groups. This sickens me to no end.
Walnut, you have no sandbox and you do not set any rules. You get one vote and you get to voice your opinion, that’s all.
The third will decide who’s sandbox it is and they will set the rules.
My opinion is that we are better off without Meyer.
Walnut….Meyers “sandbox” is missing one thing…..sand. The circus is about to end, and the voters in the 3rd can’t wait!
Meyer doesn’t care about re-election, he is too busy talking to himself on his blog.