Why I Do Not Support Mayor Pete
Mayor Pete is an appealing candidate for president. He is highly intelligent and speaks wonderfully. At the same time, Mayor Pete has limitations that bother me greatly. He is much better than the incumbent. I will support him if nominated. I will not, however, support him in seeking the nomination. The major weakness that Mayor Pete has which may interfere with his being nominated and elected deals with his history related to black people in South Bend. His initial priority in South Bend as major was to have 1000 dilapidated houses demolished. In doing this, he disproportionately hurt parts of the black community there. Little was done to avoid hurting these people. The "bigger" cause was the purported economic vitality of the city. That this was done at the expense of black people was never ameliorated and/or acknowledged. Mayor Pete also had the black police chief fired. This also was unpopular with black people. To win the nomination as pres