Just make it as hard for me as you can to vote for Bill Knight, why doncha?

I am an unaffiliated voter (registered as neither Democrat or Republican). I switched from Democrat in 2002 when there was a Republican running for local office for whom I wanted to vote in the Republican primary. (Unaffiliated voters in North Carolina can pick a party's primary in which to vote.)

Two years ago, I voted for Yvonne Johnson for mayor. While there is no doubt she has some good things going for her, she hasn't lived up to my expectations.

In general, she doesn't seem too "on the ball." I have been sorely disappointed in her lack of (public) curiosity towards the "black book," for example, and what it did or did not imply and her lack of any leadership in taking the public to a reality-based understanding of that issue. (Her comment that, if we are going to have a book "like that" for black officers, there should be one for white officers too is illustrative of her confusion.) She has either lacked the intellectual curiosity herself to get to the bottom of things or, if she does understand now, she has not seen the need to correct the perceptions she previously publicly painted.

She has, like other city council members, said all the right things about transparency, then proved to be impotent in doing anything about it.

She said six months ago that she was personally going to recruit a broadband internet provider to compete with Time Warner Cable and apparently has not yet succeeded, but I do not know of the status because she declined to answer my email inquiries about her progress.

So no egregious missteps or bad intentions by Mayor Johnson, just a lackadasical term that has someone like me thinking we can do better. Thus I take a serious look at Bill Knight, but some of his supporters sure make it hard to want to touch the screen for him.

Jordan Green at Yes!Weekly transcribes this from a recent press release by Bill Wright, the chairman of the Guilford County Republic Party:

"The Democrat controlled city council and legislature operate under the same ideals of an ever expanding government, higher taxes and more infringement into individual freedom and property rights. Yes, the awakened voters of Greensboro have sent a chill rushing through the Democrat council candidates and the prospect of losing control of the Greensboro City Council is real and frightening to the Democrat establishment with their feeling of entitlement."

There is enough of the "right" language in there to make a conservative giddy: The Rush inspired "Democrat" instead of the correct "Democratic" (for a party that wants to make English the official language, they sure are eager to abuse it), "expanding government," and "entitlement." Wright hits all the chords and that is exactly the kind of stuff I DO NOT want to see infused into local government: That unthinking ideological call to arms for the indoctrinated.

I would like a numbers guy (Knight is a retired C.P.A.) with the knowledge and desire to put the budget under a microscope. I think Knight is capable of actually reducing taxes without crazy pain and with a little luck. I'd like a guy who is willing to face facts, no matter where they may come from--Knight strikes me as naturally inquisitive.

But I want this guy to be this way because it is pragmatic to be so--a good way to govern for the best outcomes--not because he is out to start and win some ideological skirmish. Bill Wright has me nearly convinced that the election of Knight would be an ideological victory--I mean, he is plainly saying as much in his press release. I have no interest in voting to get that started. I have no interest in voting for what some hope will be an escalation of partisanship on council.

I have a real dilemma.