Awhile back, I wrote in my monthly Burg column about a potentially debilitating condition that I had identified called “Capital City Syndrome.”
This is a sickness that causes people who live or work in a state capital to think that they’re more consequential than their positions may actually warrant. Some folks in these capital cities have easy access to legislators and governors and lobbyists and grand buildings and suddenly think to themselves: “Heck, why not me?”
Well, Harrisburg City Hall should be quarantined and everyone there inoculated pronto because this illness is spreading at an alarming rate.
Today, Brenda Alton, the city’s director of Parks, Recreation and Enrichment, became the second Harrisburg official to declare for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, joining Councilman Brad Koplinski in the quest.
That’s right: two people from this tiny, troubled city believe they can become the commonwealth’s next second-in-command.
Standing in the Capitol rotunda, a spectacular, ornate space just blocks away from a municipal building subject to water leaks and faulty air conditioning, Alton looked impressive as one does standing before the grand center staircase.
“Some may ask, ‘why you and why now?'” Alton read from her prepared remarks after being introduced by former City Council President Gloria Martin-Roberts. “The real question is: ‘why not me?'”
Alton then proceeded to invoke an unnamed Chinese philosopher, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.
“I am Brenda Marie Alton,” she said, capping off this litany of notables. “I have the shoulders of great forerunners to stand upon. I am confident, courageous, informed and diplomatic enough to run this race and win.”
Brenda Alton announces her candidacy.
After the speech, the assembled press asked just three questions. Two of them were mine.
Q: Do you expect to continue to serve as Harrisburg Parks and Rec director while seeking the nomination as lieutenant governor?
A. Yes.
Q. You have some name recognition in Harrisburg, but how do you expect to increase your name recognition throughout the state?
A. Who says I don’t have name recognition?
Alton then went on to shut me down by saying she has name recognition in New York City and throughout the nation, without specifically mentioning this state.
(Note to Alton’s political advisers, the correct, non-defensive stock answer is: “Over the coming year, I will campaign hard throughout the commonwealth to earn the respect and the vote of all Pennsylvanians.”)
When I first coined the term “Capital City Syndrome,” I was actually referring to former Mayor Steve Reed and current Mayor Linda Thompson, who, surrounded by marble and gilding and rich people at swanky affairs, both seemed to get caught up in exaggerated notions of the importance of this small city and of their own positions, in the process getting both into deep trouble.
However, this illness now seems to extend to the level of City Council and the Department of Parks & Recreation. Was declaring municipal bankruptcy such an astounding success on the part of council — or has the Thompson administration been such a model of municipal efficiency and pride — that either now should serve as the bases of huge promotions for their members?
Recently, I went to the cashier’s office to pay a parking ticket and found the clerk’s service to be both efficient and pleasant. Please, someone gauge his plans for 2014.
