Richmond's Next Mayor: Goodbye, Goldman

Despite his thick briefcase stuffed full of plans for a future Richmond, his keen analytical mind and his reputation as a Kingmaker, Paul Goldman was never a serious contender to grab the gold ring as Richmond's next mayor. Blame it on his "call a spade a spade" style; the media's refusal to take him seriously (I'll take only partial blame here; there have been several Goldman initiatives I've embraced as pure genius and long overdue); or the fact that Goldman never actually developed a ground game of any sort. Or blame Richmond; it's an easy target.

With Goldman stepping off the debate platform, three facts remain -- the man has solid ideas, which the next mayor ought to pay attention to; life on the mayoral campaign trail just got a bit more dull; and Jones was the only candidate Goldman could have endorsed.

Don Harrison sums up part of Goldman's appeal at Save Richmond:

I have attended three of these programs so far — and only Paul Goldman really sounded convincing to me. Beyond the jokes, the aggressive attitude, the constant reminders that he’s the one who originally pushed to have Richmond’s Mayor directly elected — we get it, Paul — he has been the real stuff; the only Mayoral aspirant with a grasp of the city’s (and the country’s) fiscal challenges, the only one who took a strong early stand of support for such important citizen-led initiatives as the Downtown Plan, the only one to stump on greater citizen inclusion and involvement (he proposed a citizen-led Unity Council to advise City Hall). He has clearly been the smartest, if not most qualified, runner in the race. He has also been (by far) the crankiest, he has a “Yankee” accent and is often fond of using ill-advised motion picture analogies on the podium and in his press releases.

What I don't buy is the Michael Morchower school of thought; the local lawyer was quoted in the Times-Dispatch as saying, "What Paul doesn't have is old Richmond," Morchower said. "What's important in Richmond is who's your daddy, and where you go to church."

Maybe if you still subscribe to Richmond circa 1990 or 1980 or 1878. Maybe if you run with the over-60 crowd. Maybe if you like easy targets.

What Goldman's didn't have was a campaign. Ideas a'plenty, he had, but his ability to sell them to the broader public proved to be marginal at best.

Hopefully, Richmond's next mayor will find value in some of Goldman's stronger ideas. Richmond's government could stand a bit of a kick-start.