Sioux Falls Mayor Candidates

I thought I'd take a look at the candidates for mayor of Sioux Falls and list my initial impressions for each one. You can find brief bios on all 11 candidates here. (EDIT: From some reason the article cuts off the last three candidates: Richter, Smith and Viereck.)

Janoct Ajda - I like him. I like his goals. I'm not sure about trying for a "word of mouth" campaign. That's something that happens on its own and you can't really do it yourself. My biggest worry is that he might not have enough experience for the job, but I like him.

Vernon Brown - He has a lot of appeal as a candidate with his 12 years as a reporter. A lot of voters probably remember him. I like that he's thinking about economic development. And talking about trust in government is a good idea as President Bush's popularity heads toward single digits.

Dan Christopherson - His insistence that he doesn't want people to vote for him makes me want to vote for him.

Bruce Halverson - Bruce is cool. My favorite of the bunch. I'll post more about him later.

Lora Hubbel - Open government is a good goal, especially with recent closed legislature idiocy. I'm not sure how strong a candidate she is yet. I think she's one to keep an eye on.

Bob Jamison - The biggest plus in his column is his almost two decades of work as a city commissioner/councilor. The goals he listed in the Argus were kind of vague, so I hope to see more clear statements from him in the future.

Dave Munson - Current mayor. Kind of weird that he changed his mind about running again. Can he overcome his scandal and get re-elected? We'll see.

Casey Murschel - She seems pretty good, but I'd like to hear more from her. And I question her implication that she has more experience than Jamison.

Mitch Richter - What's the first thing he does as an official mayoral candidate? He goes negative. It's hard for me not to think of him as a dick right now. I agree with him that the city budget needs a good once-over, but that idea is being over shadowed by his dickness.

Darrin Smith - He seems okay, but doesn't terribly excite me. Another candidate talking about trust in government. He brings youth where most of the other candidates bring experience.

Darrel Viereck - Another one talking about economic development, which is good. I'm not sure if he has enough political experience for the job, though.

Those are my initial impressions. I'll update when we learn more about them.