Hi Readers,
I usually don't write about local politics but since I met the man I will profile I never met a person that deserves to win a public office they seek more then Bill David Ansari. He is running for the office of Mayor of Burnsville Minnesota. His opponent an incumbent who has held the office several years even reaching the Presidency of The National Office of Mayors! Talk about a David and Goliath situation! But Bill (David) Ansari trudges on ready to do battle so he can help the people of his beloved Burnsville!
Let me tell you about Bill David Ansari. Bill grew up in Jerusalem in an impoverished family but some how his older brother came to live in in the USA and was working in the Creamettes Factory in Minneapolis and sent for his brother Bill to live with him in Burnsville Minnesota. Bill arrived in the USA with $10.00 in his pocket and not speaking a word of English. That was 37 years ago but during those 37 years he went to school and studied hard and learned English. He took on various jobs, from delivering airplane parts to learning how to be a chef and opening up a restaurant with his brothers. He is opening up a new restaurant in Hopkins Minnesota in October. He is an embodiment of the Horatio Alger story so iconic In the USA. He has pulled himself up with gigantic bootstraps!
While living in Burnsville he experienced the inequities of the current mayor's lack of skill at running a city. The current mayor Elizabeth Kautz allowed Burnsville to be held hostage by excessive snow and didn't have the streets plowed out for several days. Bill had trouble trying to get groceries for his family and called the mayor for help which she took her time to provide it. He saw other blunders she made like allowing trash to rot along the Minnesota River and spending the the residents of Burnsville's money on an Arts Center that remains vacant most of the time. Bill David Ansari decided the only way his city would get better is if he ran for mayor.
I met him in The Boston Garden ( the restaurant he will take over in October) in Hopkins Minnesota. He saw my Obama button and we talked. He discovered that I was on my second time of being part of Team Obama and that I also worked on the Kerry/ Edwards Presidential Campaign. He asked for my help and after hearing his story I gladly became one of his advisers. He deserves to be Mayor of Burnsville Minnesota!