Candidate for
Mayor; City of La Mesa

People ask me why I'm running for mayor and my answer is always the same: "To give the people of La Mesa a forum in which their voices will truly be heard, to give them the respect they are due, and to be their servant."

As your prospective mayor, I'd like to offer you an alternative that is fully consonant with the spirit of this great democracy and the intention of its founders. I would like to restore La Mesa to vibrancy as a truly democratic community; one that welcomes and carefully listens to the ideas and concerns of its citizens. Too often politicians forget that, under our democratic form of government, it is the people who are sovereign. That means that elected officials -- presidents, governors and mayors -- are servants: servants of the public they were elected to represent.

Furthermore, I would like to emphasize that it is only by encouraging active civic participation that democracies truly thrive. La Mesa's population hovers just under 60,000. For a city interested in hearing from its citizens and willing to consider their advice, that's like having nearly 60,000 nerve endings directly touching the sensitive and "sore spots" in our community. What a tremendous capacity! A capacity which, if responded to, would benefit the city significantly.

I therefore promise La Mesa's proud citizens that which, since it is their due, should have been available to them all along -- a new and dignified role in the affairs of their community.

To fulfill that promise, I will hold accountability sessions every month in a different part of La Mesa and invite the public to attend and ask any questions they wish.

Most of us know that crime is on the rise. Perhaps fewer, however, realize how just how dramatic this increase has been or that it often involves a particularly dangerous form of lawlessness. Gangs are growing in La Mesa and they threaten citizens' lives and property. Since public safety is government's greatest responsibility -- protecting citizens from enemies both within and without -- we must work together to ensure that our police force is of more than sufficient size and strength to stamp out this threat.

I pledge zero tolerance for gangs as the official policy of the City of La Mesa.

Finally, in addition to ensuring our own safety and that of our families and friends, we must take a long, hard look down the road of our future. What kind of people do we want to be? Or, to be more specific: what kind of people do we want our children to be and what can local government do to help in the formation of their character? Shocking new statistics help point the way. For example, did you know that only thirty percent of incoming freshmen at colleges and universities read at a twelfth-grade level? Or that the majority of college graduates can't place the phrase, "of the people, by the people, for the people." For a people who truly are sovereign, these are ominous signs and we must do everything within our power to combat them, for a nation conceived in liberty will not endure long in the absence of such historical and political knowledge. Therefore, I propose that the city make a concerted effort with our churches, schools, and libraries to instill in our children a passion for the written word, placing a special focus on what I will call the Lexicon of Liberty: the literature of free democratic people.

Open, transparent, accessible government, stronger law enforcement, and a new generation steeped in the wisdom of their forefathers and therefore able to chart a true course toward a better future. Do these things exhaust what we have to offer? Hardly. But they do seem like the best place to start. Are we shooting high? Yes. But the demands upon us are great and we must rise to the occasion. Write us. Talk to us. We want to hear from you! Join us in this grand adventure to make better citizens for a better La Mesa.

- Craig S. Maxwell