Cory Booker & 4 Other Mayors Who Solve Problems

Submitted by Jack McCullough on May 22, 2012
Tags: 
cory booker
antonio villaraigosa
Michael Bloomberg
Scott Avedisian
Mitch Landrieu

As the campaigns of President Obama and Mitt Romney dominate the airwaves until this November, people may lose sight of what an elected official is supposed to do. Amidst the partisan mudslinging and the sound bites taken out of context, we need to remember that we are voting for the leaders of the country at every level. While party lines and money may help candidates on the national scale, local leaders know that the best way to get re-elected is good, old-fashioned results. Listed below are some of these leaders and what they are doing today to benefit this country tomorrow.

Cory Booker: Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat, has been getting a lot of media attention lately, he recently criticized the Obama campaign team for their Bain Capital attacks against Mitt Romney. Booker has been quickly disparaged by Democrats and the Republicans have jumped all over the quote. However, Mayor Booker was right to express his own opinion and not worry about the labels. Below is a video of Cory Booker at No Labels launch in December 2010, expressing a similar sentiment, saying “there is no Democratic or Republican destiny, there is an American destiny.”

Michael Bloomberg: Mayor of New York City
Mayor Bloomberg is one of the most famous mayors in the country as mayor of New York City. As an Indepdent, Bloomberg has backed both Democrat and Republican idea, proving that labels are not necessary to govern successfully. Recently, he has led a bipartisan effort to get New York’s pensions costs under control. As part of New York Leaders for Pension Reform, Bloomberg and representatives from both parties have voiced their concern over the growing pension costs in the the state.

Antonio Villaraigosa: Mayor of Los Angeles, California
Recently, Mayor Villaraigosa has teamed up with other mayors as part of the Building America's Future Educational Fund, a bipartisan effort to improve infrastructure in America. Villaraigosa said, “If they pass the surface transportation bill and America Fast Forward, it will allow us to accelerate the building of that 30-year project in a 10-year period of time, creating 166,000 jobs.” Villaraigosa has even worked with his citizens to raise funds to help repair Los Angeles roads and create jobs.

Scott Avedisian: Mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island
As a member of the Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership program, Mayor Avedisian has worked with local leaders around the country to explore bipartisanship solutions to our nation’s problems. These experiences have helped his popularity and made Warwick one of the top 100 cities in which to reside in America as well as one of the safest. Avedisian cites, “[his] ability to reach across the aisle” as part of his success.

Mitch Landrieu: Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana
Mayor Landrieu been working with all citizens of New Orleans to issue a new era of success for the city. He teamed up with the rest of the city council to make New Orleans an attractive destination for innovative businesses and tourists. Landrieu estimates that over 400,000 people will visit the city through music festivals, sporting events, and regular tourism. While doing all this, he has also improved the education system. Landrieu understands that all this takes a bipartisanship effort saying, “A city can't really do all of those things if it's not functioning well.”