But Rachael’s Café on East Third Street was packed Thursday evening as Democratic mayoral candidate John Hamilton walked to the stage to deliver his platform and kick off his candidacy for mayor of Bloomington.
This is Hamilton’s second crack at the top job in Bloomington, his ?hometown.
“I’m running for mayor because I do think this city and these times needs an experienced leader, a proven progressive who knows how to get progressive things done,” Hamilton said in his speech. “I’m running for mayor because I want the next generation of ?Bloomingtionians to look back and say the things we did over the next four years were the right things to do.”
Tomi Allison, former mayor of Bloomington gave a short introduction.
“A proven progressive” was the saying repeated over and over again by Hamilton and Allison, touting his years as a dedicated liberal Democrat that has worked in ?Washington, D.C., ?Indianapolis and ?Bloomington.
Hamilton outlined his “progressive” plan for Bloomington.
He called for a community-owned fiber optic broadband network that would help residents and businesses alike, which could either be publicly or privately ?operated.
He said this network would be part of what he called his “full-court press on high quality job.”
“Most Midwest cities in the last few years — like us — have lost good paying jobs,” Hamilton said. “We need to get those back, we need to grow jobs, we need to attract jobs, high paying, good paying sustainable jobs — that doesn’t happen automatically.”
Hamilton urged for ?affordable housing by ?calling for new properties to set aside a number of their units to be cheaply priced. He also promised to fight the Indiana state government in what he called an aggressive attack against public schools in the state.
Hamilton promised transparency in his ?administration.
“It’s really important to me that we have an open government,” Hamilton said in his ?platform speech. “When I’m mayor, I will literally and ?figuratively open the doors in city hall.”
Hamilton said his years of work for civil, LGBT and labor rights sets him apart in a Democratic primary that includes Darryl Neher and John Linnemeier.
For Hamilton, ?campaigning and politics is all familiar. He ran for mayor in 2011, losing to ?incumbent and current Bloomington mayor Mark Kruzan.
In 1997, Hamilton was appointed to be the commissioner of the ?Indiana Department of ?Environmental Management by then-governor Frank O’ Bannon.
Hamilton spent 6 years in Washington D.C. as the founder and director of First City Bank, a nonprofit that gives ?affordable loans.
Dawn Johnsen, his wife, was nominated by President Obama to the Department of Justice, but withdrew her name after opposition from ?Republicans.
