LEO may be full of grumpy, politically-correct, snowflake liberals who think everything is wrong, but we also like scary stories... and lame trick-or-treat references.
This is my treat for you: A pillowcase full of the scariest tricks and sweetest treats Louisville has to offer this Halloween season.
Trick: Republican candidate for mayor, Councilwoman Angela Leet, is running the scariest campaign I can remember. It was obvious a year ago, when I wrote “The Mayor’s Chief Problem” that Leet’s campaign would center around the city’s problem with gun violence the last few years... but she has taken her campaign to a scary, dark place.
In her first debate against Mayor Greg Fischer, Leet opened with “I’m running for the children who step over body bags when they get off the bus.” She followed this up in the second mayoral debate with: “We have the homelessness of San Francisco, the violence of Chicago, and we are one employer away from becoming the next Detroit.”
I didn’t realize Louisville was the amalgamation of the worst three aspects of America’s biggest cities. Her campaign would make Donald Trump’s “American carnage” look like Easter.
Treat: The most important election for Kentucky — to replace our governor — is in 2019, and campaigning will begin as soon as this year’s midterms are over. Democrats need to get serious about who they nominate to take on Gov. “Bell Curve” Bevin. He earned his nickname by winning with only about 16 percent of registered voters. Like how I did on most of my high school science tests, 16 percent on the bell curve was just good enough.
Trick: Speaking of Bevin tricks, he tricked the legislature into approving $15 million for a project he declined to identify. Braidy Industries just received another $4 million from the federal government... which was administered through the Bevin administration. We could lose our investment, though — the company still needs to raise over $400 million in equity capital so it can borrow $1 billion in a low-cost loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. This won’t move up the time frame before the manufacturing plant actually manufactures something — in 2020 — but, hey, a million here, a million there… the party of fiscal responsibility and “not picking winners and losers” continues to be the party of tricksters.
Trick: This trick is on Republicans, whose last-minute effort to pass a pension bill failed later in court.
Treat: The city got a treat in new UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. She has entered the house of horrors left behind by her predecessor and reinvigorated the university. That said, one can’t ignore the trickiest of tricksters — former UofL Athletic Director Tom Jurich, who still haunts UofL, today — leaving the university with a football coach whose contract locks the university into about a half-million per win. I’m not a fire-the-coach kind of guy, but I am a coaches-are-paid-too-damn-much kind of guy.
Treat: Topgolf is coming to Louisville, if the Metro Council agrees!
Trick: To the NIMBY residents who opposed Topgolf, you got to have your voices heard, but the city was never going to prevent this from happening. I promise you, it won’t be as bad as you think… and there will be something else for you to scream about soon. Also, did you know there is a country club in the middle of your neighborhood? I’m sure no drinking, driving or partying goes on there now.
Treat: LEO is turning 28 years old, and we’re not going anywhere until everyone has healthcare, marijuana is legal and Mitch McConnell retires to his shell (where he can eat in peace) for good.
Happy Halloween from the grumpy resistance.
