Pierzchala Declares Candidacy For City Council

The election campaign of 2009 officially began today as >Mark Pierzchala declared his candidacy for City Council by sending this message:

I announce my candidacy for Rockville City Council. In these days of economic stress, Rockville will have to make many hard choices. I am the person who will provide clear, strong, and respectful leadership. I will be “A Leader for Our Times”.

In considering whether to mount a campaign for council member, I ultimately could not accept the first budget passed by the present Mayor and Council that authorized 23 ½ new City Staff positions and that raised spending 9.5%. Even if economic forecasts at that time had been rosy, and they were not, this level of spending increase is not acceptable.

Other major themes of my campaign include the simultaneous promotion of economic development and ecological renewal; a return to civility and a more open government; and strengthening communications between the neighborhoods, elected officials, and City Staff.

I will wage a vigorous and honorable campaign. All candidates have a passion for Rockville and there is honest disagreement on direction. It is time that Rockville had a sharply focused campaign on policy issues and I intend to provide that.

Since it has been a while since the last city election, I thought it might be a nice time to reiterate the Rockville Central approach to elections (an article from the last city election on that is here). We see ourselves a resource for the people of Rockville, a safe space for dialogue and a source of information and news.

Rockville Central itself does not endorse any candidates. While we may hold individual opinions, when we express them it will be clearly indicated as opinion. And, we always bend over backwards to be fair, transparent, and open — actively seeking contrary opinions to our own. And we will always be open to dialogue with readers and members of the community.

Here is what you can expect us to try our best to give you:

• A way to know who is running for what City offices, with a link to their campaign website
• Significant news items or analysis that relate to their positions on City issues or the overall viability of their candidacy
• Interviews with candidates — written recaps and full audio (see below for how you can help)
• Personal opinion — tagged as opinion — about the election if it seems honestly helpful
• A direct statement from each candidate, either text or video or both
• A photo of each person running for City office
• Other information and that seems useful

We will try to make sure you won’t get:

• Screeds, rants, tirades, anonymous flame-wars, personal attacks
• Ideological invective disguised as “news”
• Trumped-up “investigation” pieces that amount to nothing
• Glowing puff-pieces disguised as “news”
• Endorsements by Rockville Central
• Punditry, predictions, and insider politics

As a political geek, I am delighted the election season is here and I wish all candidates the best of luck!

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