What a great evening ! 
Food, drink, friends and neighbors. Discussing politics among friends can get touchy from time to time, but the great food made up for it.
Everyone walked away with a good feeling about the following recommendations:
- Your vote is crucial to the foward movement of Belmont, its extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ), and the next generation of families and citizens.
- Every vote counts. Do not underestimate the power of one vote, just remember to get out and make the effort. Multiply your effectiveness by calling your neighbor and offering to help them get to a polling station.
- Becky Burch and Charlie Flowers need to be retired by election out of office. Both have continued to perpetuate the good ‘ol boy backwoods emotion of pitting newcomers against the hometown-born and raised. They are inneffective as a team and inconsequential as free-thinkers.
The Belmont Front Porch is endorsing Dennis Boyce, Martha Stowe, and Richard Turner for City Council.
Dennis Boyce, no relation to Mayor Richard Boyce, has demonstrated a willingness to become involved with the community politics and represent the North Belmont Community that for years has been underserved. Mr. Boyce will represent the community in an educated manner, listen to both sides of a story, and not have preconceived notions about his own pocketbook.
We feel that Martha Stowe deserves your vote and support because she too will bring a sense of fairness to the council discussions. Martha is knowledgeable about the issues, has a good connection to the younger people of the community, and continues to work hard in a number of community activities that are not always sports-related. She will not be anybody’s patsie.
Richard Turner was the toughest decision for endorsement. However, we do feel that ultimately he too will be fair in his council decisions and processing of the issues. Our concern is over his axe-grinding on public-private partnerships. He has demonstrated a willingness to learn more about an issue, even if he openly disagrees, he is civil in his overall behaviors and will talk to opponents.
Independent voices for an independent and thriving community. It is your choice, we still love you Belmont, whether you agree with our choices or not.
See ya’ll on Tuesday !
The Belmont Front Porch 
Of course this contradicts your previous recommendation of Gaston, Stowe, and Dixon that you posted over at Topix.com. Why is that?
I hope you are right about Turner and Stowe, but I think there is a statistical problem to getting Burch and Flowers out of office. My concern has been largely ignored in the online forums, but I fear that there are simply too many good candidates running this year to get the vote focused on one or two. We all can simply not agree on who to focus on and there are only three seats.
I hope I’m wrong!
I was hoping for rain so the so the senior Burch and Flower supports might stay at home – so much for that!
Dennis Boyce is an excellent choice for city council. He has my vote!
You are dead on the money! This team will breathe fresh air into city government. I concur.