MY CANDIDATE'S CAMPAIGN PROMISES: Well, gang, primary voting starts in twenty-three hours and I still don't know which mayoral candidate I'll vote for.

Mostly this is because no candidate has made any of the campaign promises that would matter to me.

No candidate has said: "It's none of my business where people shop, but everyone knows Wal-Mart maintains its low prices by systematically scoffing at Federal labor law, knowing that the law won't be enforced by the Feds. As Mayor I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in our community by Wal-Mart or any other company. I'll instruct the Law Department to evaluate all complaints of unfair labor practice by Wal-Mart and other non-union retailers in the city, and look for ways to support those that are legitimate. And I'll push City Council to amend the city's Fair Employment Wage Law to include major retailers like Wal-Mart, before we consider any more big box retail developments."

No candidate has said: "This City signed up more than 30,000 new customers for Cleveland Public Power in the '90s by promising they'd pay lower electric rates compared to CEI. We are breaking that promise every month. As Mayor, I intend to make good on it. I will reduce Public Power's residential rates by at least 20% in the next four years."

No candidate has said: "The most important economic development issue for Cleveland is the education level of our work force. For fifteen years we've been measuring our development success by the number of vacant lots we've turned into new homes. It's time to start measuring our progress by the number of our working-age residents who go to college. If elected, I'll make sending Cleveland to college my top economic development priority... higher on the list than a new convention center." (Frank Jackson came closest by calling for two years of free college for city residents in a PD op-ed back in May, but has not repeated this since.)

No candidate has said: "Twenty-first century technology is just as important for neighborhood development as it is for downtown and regional development. As Mayor, I'll put low-cost broadband Internet access high on my citywide neighborhood development agenda."

Those are a few of the promises my candidate for Mayor would be making... if my candidate was running.

Nevertheless, I'll see you at the polls.