Great Minds
Think alike. Sound familiar?
Fresno voters say no to another baby boomer mayor
By Jim Boren / The Fresno Bee
June 8, 2008
There was a generational change that occurred in Tuesday's mayoral election that didn't get a lot of attention. The next mayor -- Henry T. Perea or Ashley Swearengin -- will be in his or her 30s. Fresno voters rejected several baby boomers in favor of Perea, who will be 31 at the end of the month, and Swearengin, who turned 36 last month.
Both ran strong campaigns that appealed to voters on traditional issues, such as public safety and protecting neighborhoods. But they also talked about air quality, making the city greener and bringing young creative people into the political process.
City Hall will change, no matter who gets elected in November. If I were a bureaucrat working out of the spaceship on P Street, I'd be very nervous to be fingered as someone standing in the way of progress. The old ways of doing things just might get outsourced to young minds working on their home computers.
Perea, a two-term council member, was an early advocate of getting Fresno's creative community and young professionals involved in city issues. That spawned a group that took on issues such as revitalizing downtown and creating a 21st century economy that would be a magnet for bringing bright minds to the city. They pushed plans that would reverse the "brain drain" and getting "boomerangs" to return to Fresno.
Swearengin talked often about creating a knowledge-based economy that's much more entrepreneurial than the ways Fresno has done things in the past. Problem-solving would be focused on getting results rather than using traditional methods that seldom attacked problems head-on. Process is important, she says, but not if it's an excuse not to move forward.
You didn't hear that kind of talk from most of the aging baby boomers on Tuesday's ballot. They got crushed by the 30-somethings because the newbies beat the old-school politicians at their own game, while adding supporters who had never been involved in the system before.
Perea and Swearengin also consider technology their friends. Crucial information is carried on tiny flash drives to plug into computers when it's needed. Baby boomers still thumb through files in manila folders looking for talking points.
What struck me most about Perea and Swearengin winning the top two spots in the mayoral race is they got to the runoff by reaching voters in non-traditional ways. But they also raised all the money they needed the old-fashioned way -- getting supporters to write checks.
They took the best of traditional politicking and married it with technology.
Over the next five months, we will find out how this new generation of leaders will battle for the mayor's job, the most visible local office in the San Joaquin Valley.
There is no doubt that the special interests will have their hands in these campaigns. They already do. The public employee unions and business interests aren't about to let an election pass without making sure their interests are protected.
They adapt to the candidates because there's too much money at stake for them not to be malleable.
The Perea and Swearengin campaigns have brought new people into the mayor's race, just as Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has brought new voters into presidential politics. All talk about the need for change -- the political buzzword of 2008.
The danger here, of course, is that whoever gets elected mayor in November defaults to Fresno's tired old ways of doing things. You know what I'm talking about: public works problems across the city, a permitting process at City Hall that's been the subject of complaints for three decades, out-of-town landowners on the Fulton Mall being coddled by bureaucrats, high-salaried jobs being given to the mayor's pals, developers and public employee unions having too much influence over policy.
If Perea or Swearengin continue that pattern, then this new generation of leaders will just be a continuation of the past -- the good-enough-for-Fresno crowd.
But if they build on the best of the past, and bring real change to City Hall, Fresno can be something special.
June 8, 2008
There was a generational change that occurred in Tuesday's mayoral election that didn't get a lot of attention. The next mayor -- Henry T. Perea or Ashley Swearengin -- will be in his or her 30s. Fresno voters rejected several baby boomers in favor of Perea, who will be 31 at the end of the month, and Swearengin, who turned 36 last month.
Both ran strong campaigns that appealed to voters on traditional issues, such as public safety and protecting neighborhoods. But they also talked about air quality, making the city greener and bringing young creative people into the political process.
City Hall will change, no matter who gets elected in November. If I were a bureaucrat working out of the spaceship on P Street, I'd be very nervous to be fingered as someone standing in the way of progress. The old ways of doing things just might get outsourced to young minds working on their home computers.
Perea, a two-term council member, was an early advocate of getting Fresno's creative community and young professionals involved in city issues. That spawned a group that took on issues such as revitalizing downtown and creating a 21st century economy that would be a magnet for bringing bright minds to the city. They pushed plans that would reverse the "brain drain" and getting "boomerangs" to return to Fresno.
Swearengin talked often about creating a knowledge-based economy that's much more entrepreneurial than the ways Fresno has done things in the past. Problem-solving would be focused on getting results rather than using traditional methods that seldom attacked problems head-on. Process is important, she says, but not if it's an excuse not to move forward.
You didn't hear that kind of talk from most of the aging baby boomers on Tuesday's ballot. They got crushed by the 30-somethings because the newbies beat the old-school politicians at their own game, while adding supporters who had never been involved in the system before.
Perea and Swearengin also consider technology their friends. Crucial information is carried on tiny flash drives to plug into computers when it's needed. Baby boomers still thumb through files in manila folders looking for talking points.
What struck me most about Perea and Swearengin winning the top two spots in the mayoral race is they got to the runoff by reaching voters in non-traditional ways. But they also raised all the money they needed the old-fashioned way -- getting supporters to write checks.
They took the best of traditional politicking and married it with technology.
Over the next five months, we will find out how this new generation of leaders will battle for the mayor's job, the most visible local office in the San Joaquin Valley.
There is no doubt that the special interests will have their hands in these campaigns. They already do. The public employee unions and business interests aren't about to let an election pass without making sure their interests are protected.
They adapt to the candidates because there's too much money at stake for them not to be malleable.
The Perea and Swearengin campaigns have brought new people into the mayor's race, just as Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has brought new voters into presidential politics. All talk about the need for change -- the political buzzword of 2008.
The danger here, of course, is that whoever gets elected mayor in November defaults to Fresno's tired old ways of doing things. You know what I'm talking about: public works problems across the city, a permitting process at City Hall that's been the subject of complaints for three decades, out-of-town landowners on the Fulton Mall being coddled by bureaucrats, high-salaried jobs being given to the mayor's pals, developers and public employee unions having too much influence over policy.
If Perea or Swearengin continue that pattern, then this new generation of leaders will just be a continuation of the past -- the good-enough-for-Fresno crowd.
But if they build on the best of the past, and bring real change to City Hall, Fresno can be something special.
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