Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman
“New” Gilbert resident Donna Davis has a guest column today in the Tribune calling on her neighbors to rise up and sweep the town’s current leadership out of office. But she’s not stepping forward to take the political stones and arrows in their place, which could limit the impact of her views to that of armchair quarterbacks everywhere.
I say Davis is a “new” resident because she used to be one of those county island residents who passionately pushed for Gilbert to provide fire department services without annexation into the town. Davis lost that battle as her neighborhood sought to join the town once it was clear that Rural/Metro would end regular service to that area.
Davis hasn’t gone away, but continues to criticize the leadership of Mayor Steve Berman and Town Manager George Pettit. She speaks out frequently about what she sees as unmitigated arrogance from Berman and a lap-dog attitude from the rest of the Town Council.
But Davis won’t offer Gilbert voters a chance to compare her views on leadership with the current officeholders. Davis told me in an email message she has no plans to seek a seat on the Town Council.
I’m not surprised. Davis is far from alone in her criticism of Berman and the council. Some of those critics ran a united campaign during last spring to oust two incumbents. They failed, and they didn’t really come close.
It’s easier to complain about public officials in blogs and letters to the editor and to launch attack Web sites, than to stand before voters in an election campaign and convince them that you would do a better job.
Berman and his allies will continue take easy victories, and rightly claim they have wide public support, if credible challengers are unable make their point at the ballot box.
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