Since Councilmember Polly Armstrong announced her retirement, the 'elect a student' timetable of the External Affairs Office got an unexpected boost at the same time it finally met with failure. (The district lines were finalized, without the major shifts Fryday was calling for.)

Student Andy Katz is planning on running. So lets talk about Andy.

He's probably the most talented External Affairs person that's come along in the past four or five years. Member of the Zoning board, effective and well-informed housing advocate, patient. Anyone's guess how much of Fryday's accomplishments this year would've happened free of Andy. (Opposition people whisper that Fryday is a moron supported by a skilled staff. Not hardly, but it's true that Fryday came into the office without any background in it.)

The strangest thing about him is that he's never been External Vice President, and we don't know why. The simplistic APPLE party reason is that he wasn't committed enough to his party, Student Action, and so was never slated. Or that he was committed, but was too wrapped up in the job to have time to run. Also possible that he never wanted to run, and that running for City Council was his goal all along. After all, who wants to be in charge of the stupid ASUC when there's real power out there?

District 8 is a nice section of Berkeley, dominated by Greek housing and the wealthy Claremont section. Besides the Greek students, who don't vote, i don't know if he has any ties in the area. Most likely the Moderates will find a well-known homeowner in the area and win, although the Progressives could run someone and hope the Moderates and Andy split the 'sensible' votes.


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