Michelle Lu

With the upcoming republican primary on May 7, all attention is on the two mayoral candidates: Mayor Jim Brainard and city councilor Fred Glynn. Glynn, who began his second term at the beginning of the year, plans to run against the incumbent mayor and win largely on a more conservative platform.
Joshua Brinkman, vice president of Young Republicans Club and sophomore, said, “Glynn proposes that instead of spending more than what we have in the budget, we spend what we can say that we will spend. The only problem is that we wouldn’t be able to expand as much in terms of infrastructure and the Carmel Arts District as Brainard has done.”
Similarly, Kian Robinson, vice president of Young Democrats Club and junior, said the balanced budget that Glynn proposes are unnecessary in Carmel right now.
He said, “(Carmel’s) outstanding debt isn’t really impacting us right now. (It’s not) necessary to cut down. (Glynn’s policies) are just conservative economics that I’m not personally a fan of. As long as people we are indebted to aren’t angry about it, our economic development won’t really be affected. If the money is going toward infrastructure on a local basis, I’m fine with that.”
Government teacher Peggy Lehman had a different stance compared to Robinson and Brinkman. She said she believes that the current amount of infrastructure is enough.
Lehman said, “It’s good to be balanced. You don’t want to have too much debt going on with the chance that spending that will bring more money to the community. That is always a risk. Sometimes, some of (Brainard’s) projects are a little ambitious. Some people would like to see a little bit of a slow down.”
Although Robinson is waiting to make his final choice based off of Glynn’s stance on climate change, he said he would probably choose to vote for Glynn if given the choice.
“(Brainard) has not been very forthcoming on the specifics of budgets or deadlines,” Robinson said. “It is my understanding that the Palladium was supposed to cost maybe somewhere between $60 to $80 million, but it ended up costing over $100 million to create, and it was way off schedule as well. The untruthfulness just turns me off. Fred Glynn is less so like that (and because of that) I am inclined to like him.”