The Martin Chronicles staff has been sifting through the numbers from Tuesday's Villa Hills local election and continues to be amazed by the magnitude of now-outgoing malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin's defeat. We have been unable to find an example anywhere of any incumbent mayor in a situation similar to Martin's who suffered such an embarrassing electoral loss.
How is it that an incumbent mayor who could correctly say that he was presiding over the municipal government in a city that had recently been designated the best community in the Tri-State region suffer an 84%-16% shellacking in the next mayoral election? How could that possibly happen?
How is it that an incumbent mayor who could correctly say that he was presiding over the municipal government in a city that had recently been designated the Fourth Safest City in the Commonwealth of Kentucky not even manage to get 1 out of every 6 votes cast in the next mayoral election? How could that possibly happen?
How is it that an incumbent mayor who could correctly say that he was presiding over the municipal government in a city that had recently been designated the Seventh Best Community in the United States only manage to get 514 of the 3,224 votes cast in the next mayoral election? How could that possibly happen?
How is it that an incumbent mayor who could correctly say that he was presiding over the municipal government in a city that had recently received the preceding three prestigious designations drag the maximum number of "his" council candidates down to defeat in the next council election? How could that possibly happen?
The Martin Chronicles has come up with some of the reasons:
1. Martin's atrocious first two years in office.
The facts of Martin's miserable first two years in office have been well documented in The Martin Chronicles and in the dinosaur media. Martin inexplicably crushing the city safe open with a backhoe. Martin's hiring of an unaccomplished crony to cook the city books. Martin's reprimand from The Villa Hills Ethics Board for misuse of city personnel and resources. Martin's judicial "dressing down" for illegal destruction of city documents. Martin's conviction on seven of nine counts of official misconduct and neglect of duty. Martin's inability to work with the 2011-12 city council. The corruption and incompetence of those first two years had a lasting effect on the outcome of the 2014 election.
2. Martin's hiring of his personal attorney to serve as city attorney.
The election results resoundingly prove that is a fact that this was a terrible move. Residents were appalled that Martin's personal-and for now City-Attorney billed them somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000 to do Martin's bidding in only 20 months.
3. Martin's atrocious handling of former Police Chief Dan Goodenough's removal.
Martin would have been smart if he had never decided to go before media cameras misleading the residents by falsely telling them that "Chief Goodenough was just taking a few days off." But he wasn't smart enough to do that. Instead, that lie came back to haunt Martin a little more than 7 months later at the polls. Voters remembered the embarrassing-and very costly-spectacle of Chief Goodenough's removal last March.
4. Martin's questionable use of taxpayer money mailing a political propaganda piece.
Most of the residents who saw Martin's terrible political propaganda piece in the most previous property tax bill were appalled. While many residents never saw it, those who did told our reporters that they saw it for exactly what it was. Worse yet for Martin, these folks deeply resented paying for it.
5. Mayoral candidate Ernie Brown's excellent performance at the mayoral candidate Town Hall meeting.
Sure, Ernie Brown won't be the next mayor of Villa Hills. And, that may soon prove to be too bad. But either way, Brown's excellent performance at the mayoral candidate Town Hall meeting went a very, very long way ensuring that Martin didn't win another term either. Every time Martin floated some bogus accomplishment, Brown destroyed Martin's false statements with well-documented facts. We haven't witnessed a beating like that since the Ken Norton-Duane Bobick fight in 1977. Thank you, Ernie Brown. We are forever in your debt.
Thus, for these and many more reasons, an historic electoral rout was born.
