Yesterday, I wrote about the mayoral candidate debate that took place during Wednesday's Louisville Venture Club meeting.  I don't write alot about politics but when I failed to find funding for Ages of Athiria partly because the deal couldn't be done in Louisville, I decided to see what the three candidates for mayor were going to do for small businesses here in the city.  Today, I am going to finish the writeup and draw a couple of conclusions based on my own political beliefs.  They are my own opinion and as soon as I am done, I'll go back to game design and other such topics.  As I did yesterday, I'm recapping and adding color to my Twitter stream.

[Twitter] We're in the Q&A session now. Question is about how to create jobs. Heiner pins creation to alternative energy.
[Twitter] Green is discussing high speed rail and public transportation as more important than the bridges.

Green's comments were more inline with the current job creation standpoint coming out of Washington in that he wanted to create a large government project that would help spur job growth.  In mentioning the idea for a high speed rail between here, Chicago, Indianapolis and Nashville, he made the other answers by the other two candidates fade from my memory.  I've always been a big proponent of creating a way to get from Louisville to Indianapolis in a half hour.  When he mentioned that he would pursue this avenue instead of continuing to beat government head against the bridges projects, I figured maybe.  It was refreshing.  I don't think he can break ground on it during his term if he's elected but it's a bold move.

[Twitter] What bold steps will you take to empower entrepreneurism? Fischer's answer centered on making life easier for small business.
[Twitter] Heiner is talking about getting tax dollars commensurate with percentage of population from Frankfort.
[Twitter] Fischer answered my question posed to Hal Heiner on his Facebook page. We need more than just Chrysalis as the big VC in the city.

Now we get to the meat of what I was there to hear.  All the answers were good.  Fischer seems to have the most experience in the trenches and remembers the waterlogged boots, jammed ammo and difficult conditions.  He wants to establish an incubator to make testing new ideas easier.  He wants to connect venture capital and angel investing to the incubators so that entrepreneurs can effectively bring those ideas to market.  Unlike his opening statements, Fischer connects the dots here and presents a complete ecosystem idea.  He sounds like a pro-business Republican.  Heiner makes not of how Jefferson County sends more dollars to Frankfort than we receive and that Louisville should see returns that are more in line with our percentage of Kentucky's population.  He implies that we're paying for the poorer counties and that is causing Louisville to lag behind in job creation and vows to use Frankfort tax dollars to improve the infrastructure for entrepreneurialism.  Green didn't say much that I can remember in this segment.

[Twitter] What tax incentives would you work for. Heiner: Louisville is the 5th highest tax burden in the country. Lower taxes for higher job growth.
[Twitter] Fischer pitching lower taxes and use incubators to create jobs and generate more tax revenue.
[Twitter] Green makes no promises but want incentives to be provided. Incentives; not corporate welfare.

Both Heiner and Fischer's remarks are that government money and resources should be used to lower the tax burden placed on small businesses.  I can't say much other than that it makes so much sense that the Democratic and Republican candidates are saying the same essential message.  Green was a bit more conservative in his comments by making sure that whatever tax relief is given doesn't end up being simple corporate welfare.  All good answers in my opinion and predictably, the answers were well received by a group of people that make their livings inside small businesses.

[Twitter] Very interesting forum. Can't say it swayed my vote towards any of the candidates. All the candidates had points I liked and didn't like.
[Twitter] Last tweet an closing statements. Heiner: Inspirational. Green: Unfocused. Fischer: Pragmatic.

As things wound down, I found my vote split between Heiner and Fischer.  I like Green's high speed rail idea but I don't believe he has what it takes to make such a multi-state, multi-government project take off.  His presentation style and charisma simply were not there for such a project and he never told us why his expertise would enable him to pull off such a big plan.  In a way, he reminded me of the realization I came to with Ages of Athiria.  I could get things done here, but as soon as I stepped up to the bigger stage (LA/SF), I didn't have the expertise (resume/pedigree) to get the deal done.  Green may very well have wat it takes to make the rail system a reality but in the same way that my not being a former Facebook VP was a mark against me in LA, so will his bicycle shop owner pedigree be against him in Chicago.

Heiner's a Republican and I've been pretty soured on the whole Obama presidency in the same way that die hard Democrats hated Bush.  My natural inclination was to vote Heiner but Fischer caught my interest on Wednesday.  He said the right things and his pragmatic approach to Louisville's job market problems sounded genuine.  My only fear is that he'll be forced into the liberal mindset of his fellow party members and that doesn't sit well with me.  He's very pro-small business but also realizes that Louisville has to attract larger businesses if we ever plan to bring a massive number of jobs back to the city.  Will he cave to the mantra of taxing the rich for social programs?  I can't tell.  My vote is currently not decided as a result.

Additional Reading:
Hal Heiner's Web Site

Greg Fischer's Web Site

Jackie Green's Web Site