Hoosier mayor

During the next mayoral election, one question will be burning in the minds of Bloomington voters: Hoosier mayor?\nWell, if IU senior Jamie Lober has anything to say about it, the next big kahuna in B-town may belong to a demographic group that is far from the norm in city politics. Lober, a Republican, plans to run against current city council member David Sabbagh, in the primary elections for the mayoral candidacy. She will focus on the dual platform of encouraging economic development and providing affordable housing.\nWe’re sorry to be the pessimists in the situation, but the odds are against Lober, who is young and relatively unexperienced. \nStill, we do not see the glass as entirely empty. In fact, we applaud Lober for involving herself in local issues and getting her foot in the door of the political scene at such an early age. IU is irrefutably an oasis of political apathy. Most students won’t even vote in IU Student Association elections, and here she is, running for mayor. Many of us could stand to take a lesson from her.\nThere is, of course, a chance that voters will jump at the chance to have a fresh, young face with new perspectives heading up B-town. Take the case of Michael Sessions, for example. In 2005 when he was only 18 years old, this high-school student used the money he earned from his summer job to finance a successful campaign as a write-in candidate for mayor of Hillsdale, Mich. Sessions defeated the 51-year-old incumbent and was able to perform his mayoral duties after school – and still meet his curfew.\nSo yes, it is possible that the election results will turn out in Lober’s favor. Still, even if they do not, we hope that she does not discount a future political career. There are a lot of other options available to someone as ambitious as Lober. for example, she might be able to get a few years of experience under her belt on the city council and then work her way up from there. If she would rather not start there, however, we would be willing to put in a good word for her with any committee charged with choosing a new provost, since Michael McRobbie was promoted to University president. \nWhile Lober may not have quite the qualifications that McRobbie had – or his cool Australian accent – a little ambition can go a long way and in some cases trumps experience.\nFor that matter, when she reaches 35 years old, Lober might as well throw her name into the running for U.S. president, which seems to be what everyone else in the country is doing these days. Besides, wouldn’t it be cool to have a president from IU? We at the Indiana Daily Student editorial board think so and we would get the satisfaction of knowing that we were the first to write stories about our commander in chief, beating out most major media outlets in the country.\nIn the meantime, now might be a good time to ask Lober for her autograph. Who knows – someday you might be able to make a killing off of it on eBay.