My afternoon with Walt Monegan.

I received an invitation a while ago to attend a meet and greet with newly declared candidate for mayor, Walt Monegan.

It was a small intimate gathering which afforded me almost exclusive access to Mr. Monegan.

I started off with my new favorite greeting when introducing myself to Alaskan candidates.

"Hi I am Gryphen. I am one of those anonymous bloggers you keep hearing about."

Mr. Monegan's response was one of bemusement and no small amount of interest. (That introduction definitely makes me appear far more interesting then I am in real life.)

I asked Mr. Monegan, or as I now know him "Walt", why he only wanted to run for mayor when he could have easily aimed for higher office. (and yes that was my first question after the initial pleasantries were out of the way. I am not known for my subtlety.) I found Walt's answer to that question very interesting, and for me, perfectly understandable.

You see Walt does not like the big cities. He shared with me a story of when he visited a city in the lower 48, and how he almost went stir crazy until he was able to locate a park to spend some time in and get back in touch with nature. Walt is an Alaskan through and through and has no desire to live anyplace else. If you do not live here that may not make much sense, but to me it explained everything and I did not feel the need to revisit the topic.

I asked Walt about his plans for the city and learned that he has a strong desire to make the city safer for its citizens and more profitable for its businesses. He explained his philosophy with stories of things he had seen while serving as the Chief of Police in Anchorage. I would love to share the many stories with you but I did not write them down and besides this post would be exceptionally wordy if I were to do so. But as Mr. Monegan told these stories they did a more then an adequate job of illustrating his philosophy and how he would implement his plans for the city.

I also asked Walt if he was ready for the assault on his character which is sure to come from the ardent Sarah Palin supporters as well as those who are in support of his Republican and Democratic rivals for this job. At that Walt just smiled and replied "Certainly".

I have to say that I doubt very seriously that the competition intimidates this guy very much. He has that thing that so many local politicians seem to lack. Walt Monegan has BALLS!

Walt also said that he would probably place himself fairly close to the middle when it came to his political points of view. He said he has always voted for the best candidate regardless of which party they represent, and has never been registered as anything other then "Independent".

My impression of Mr. Monegan was that he is an exceptionally sincere man, with a true passion for helping others. He did not come off as somebody trying to shape his responses to fit the expectations of his audience. I paid close attention to his body language and his demeanor and found no hint of phoniness or insincerity about the man. In fact Walt seems especially fixated on promoting integrity and honesty in this city. Something that I have to say I agree with 100 percent. But then, who wouldn't?

I am aware that I probably had more access to Mr. Monegan then most Alaskan voters will enjoy, which is why I felt it incumbent upon me to write this post. If you get a chance to meet Mr. Monegan please take it, so that you get the opportunity to form your own opinion personally.

While what I have written above is my honest assessment of Walt Monegan, it is of course only my impressions as seen through my own unique prism. I encourage everybody to make their own decisions based on accessing as much information as they can about ALL of the candidates.

I am still in the information gathering stage of my decision making just like the rest of you. If I have the opportunity to talk to any of the other candidates I will share that information with you as well.

If we have learned anything at all from having elected George Bush and Sarah Palin, it is to make sure you know as much as possible about your candidate of choice before marking your ballot. The consequences of not doing so are now painfully obvious.