I'm sure Christine Lundberg is a very nice person.  For me, I only have 20K+ volunteer hours in public service orgs, service on disability rights boards, and several pieces of state legislation that I have authored through legislative counsel.  I also began my work career assisting in the law offices of the Secretary of the Bonneville NW energy consortium - a vast array of public utilities. Though I guess you could say I am "unqualified".   However, I am offering a new way of looking at politics in Springfield, using our intelligence to focus on making better use of its resources and workforce. So if Democrats can't defeat her, perhaps they also need to try something new.  Perhaps the Mayor should try something new as well... we need her to lead.  It is not enough to spend all ones political time and capital demonizing the 10 homeless folks who are annoying police and passer's by by asking for change, while our kids have about a 30% chance of graduating from college.