Mike and Me

Leary works a crowd, says time in town reason enough to vote for him


This last Sunday afternoon, my family and I attended a CCSD sponsored concert in our neighborhood park. The concert is an annual event that has been going on for 12 years now.

One of our neighbors is Elk Grove City council member Mike Leary, who I fully expected to see there. I was not disappointed.

Leary worked the crowd like an old time Chicago pol. Shaking hands, slapping backs, and going from group to group - there was, however, no evidence of baby kissing or hot dog noshing!

As time wore on, Leary worked his way over to my family. My wife insisted that I be polite. With a handshake and smile Leary introduced himself to my wife and me.

Like a car salesman working with a finite time to close the deal, Leary quickly told us (not in this particular order) that he was running for reelection, had served on the city council for 8 years, on the CSD before that, was a graduate of Elk Grove High, was a lieutenant with Sacramento County Sheriffs and, gasp, had lived in Elk Grove for 30 years.

After listening to his 30-second pitch, I asked Leary a simple question – “Why should I vote for you?”

It was fair enough question. After all, I could have put him on the spot and asked why he had a proclivity for having political ‘meetings’ in Las Vegas or why he takes big cash contributions from real estate developers like Reynolds & Brown who then get multi-million dollars tax subsidies from the city of Elk Grove.

After hearing the question, Leary quickly retorted with a tone of condescension and indignation “Well I just explained why you should vote for me.” We said nothing.

We politely told Leary good luck on his campaign and he moved along to his next prospect.

Good thing for Leary my household had already decided to vote for one of his opponents. He didn’t hurt his chances by talking with me and the two adults in our house otherwise he would have lost three undecided voters.

I could only think that if he is this condescending with fellow ‘little guys’ in Elk Grove, his campaign is going down the drain quickly.