O’Brien applauds young voters, ignores black voters

PNJ columnist – and the man that Marty Donovan said was the only journalist he trusted – Mark O’Brien gave his observations on the Sept. 5th election (Mark O’Brien: Money, young people ). He sees that the public wanting change, the young vote and money as the factors as to why the park passed and Grover Robinson IV won.

O’Brien mourns the loss of Banjanin without mentioning  how much the worse the county has become under his “leadership” the past 12 years. He completely ignores how the black community overwhelmingly voted in favor of the park and how diverse the pro-park supporters were compared to the Save Our City followers.

But Mark wouldn’t know because he wasn’t at the election night party that the Friends of the Waterfront Park hosted at Seville Quarter on Tuesday – the only one of the top PNJ writers/editors not there. The Seville Qtr crowd was black, white, young, old, established community leaders, average Joes, moms with their young children, and people with physical disabilities. Mark, the park won because of its widespread support in the community.

Was money a factor? Yes, it always helps. However, in the 2004, the candidates who raised the most campaign dollars lost most of the county and city races. Raising the most money doesn’t work unless your candidate or your cause wins over the voter.

Grover beat Tom because he built a network of friends and supporters that worked for months to help win  election. He was the better candidate for a county that’s the poorest and most unhealthy in the state.

I do agree it was time for a change. Mark, you failed to recognize this in the weeks leading up to the election and backed the wrong horses in these races.