Why I've Decided to Vote for Mitch O'Farrell

OK, admittedly I was leaning towards him for some of the obvious reasons - campaign tactics, a genuine local vs. probably-moved-here-for-the-election kind of thing - but my vote could still have been swayed at the debate held around the corner on Sunday afternoon. A couple things in and around the debate solidified it, and these have to do with things that John Choi said, both to the crowd and directly to me.

Choi began with an aggressive critique of O'Farrell but got nudged off that tack quickly by the audience and responded well. That was nice. It was also nice to see his dad there. But he made the assertion that O'Farrell has taken 20% of his campaign donations from developers. When the size of his own donations from big unions and the kind of tactics his donors have used against O'Farrell were brought up, he defended himself by saying that he had no control over them. Fair enough.

But after the debate, I asked him what percentage of his donations came from developers. 10%, he told me. Wow - half as much. But I thought about the actual numbers and looked it up - as Choi has a much larger stash of cash, it turns out that in real dollars, he's apparently taken considerably more money from developers than O'Farrell. So the percentages he's throwing around to me are not just meaningless, the use of them is deceptive. Look, I'm way more pro-union than pro-development. I live on Hidalgo, which has become a disaster of development - just look at the hideous bunker built for the Man-Who-Would-Be-Mayor. But I want truthful conversation, not bulls**t. When John told me about the 10%, he immediately tried castigating Mitch for what he said was $25,000 in attacks against him from the developers of the Millennium project. But he had just begged off responsibility for his union backers attacks on Mitch, so I had to tell him he couldn't have it both ways and insisted that he not talk to me like I'm stupid. That brought him around to real issues. But O'Farrell has never talked to me like I'm stupid and can be tricked with numbers.

Choi may have potential; he's pretty young, and if he lives in the district long enough he may grow into someone I'd like to have stand up for me in the Dark Councils of City Hall. But for now, I think he's not there yet. May he become that man. And I think Mitch has the potential to be for us in CD13 what Tom LaBonge is for CD4.