Friday, January 8, 2010

Lumpkin pulls out of Racine race for Alderman




Kenneth Lumpkin, who recently retired as publisher of the Insider News and had planned to be a candidate for 4th District Alderman and Racine's 4th District County Board Supervisor, says he will purposely miss today's five o'clock deadline at city hall to turn in his economic interests paperwork in order to avoid a costly primary election for the residents of Racine.


If Lumpkin was not willing to pull out of the three way competition in the fourth District Alderman race, the city would hold a February 16 runoff election between the incumbent Jim Kaplan, Lumpkin, and a newcomer, Sherrie Lawson.

If he does not turn in his economic interests statements, he cannot be certified and his name will not appear on the city ballot for Alderman, according to Janice Martin, Racine City Clerk.

Lumpkin did on Thursday file his paperwork with the County and will challenge Kaplan for his Racine County Supervisor position. He said that the needs in the city and county are too vast for one individual to tackle. "I feel that I can best serve the constituents of the fourth District by being on the County Board where I have gathered my most experience." Lumpkin served eight years as a Racine County Board Supervisor until he was defeated in 2008 by only a few votes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the role is too big for one person to do, why did you try and do that in the last election cycle?

Additionally where is your editorial against QA Shakoor?

Blog staff said...

Ken Lumpkin
One of the biggest mistakes of elected officials are the abilty to say that they are wrong.

On trying to be elected to both positions I was wrong. What often happens is you attend meeting after meeting and it is not effective for the people who elect you.

I have no problem in saying that "Q" as well as Kaplan are doing this community a disservice in holding both offices.

Although both are well informed on city government, what creative ideas have the two brought forth in the years that they have held office.

Example: One Alderman built a playground, nnother worked to have people in his district lose weight.

In trying times like we face today, it takes a part time person to be a full time elected offical.