Someone from the Dan Beck camp decided to have some fun with an internal Dave Berger YouTube ad. Thus we see the peril of posting internal ads on my blog, but that the Beck people also are reading me is soooooo flattering.

But, Camp Beck, since you’re reading: This is funny. It really is. But we all know you don’t think Berger has handled the problems as you see them. But, you know, 12 days before the election, you might try to explain what your guy would do other than not be Dave Berger.

This didn’t make any of the coverage of the event, but it’s worth mentioning about the mayoral debate Saturday night. Mayor David Berger managed to work in a reference to Pickle’s Blues Fest, which in itself might be worth a vote for him.

Challenger Dan Beck and Berger were answering a, well, let’s call it a question from panel member Charles Thomas along the lines of what the mayor of the city can do to bring to town a radio station geared toward a black audience. I guess either “buy a license” or “demonstrate there would be advertisers and support for those advertisers” is too simple an answer for Berger and Beck to give. So instead:

Beck said he would improve quality of life, cleaning up crime and the such, because someone asking about a black radio station clearly was using double speak to mask his question about getting carjacked. Poor Beck. So close to the right answer — that’s not the mayor’s job — but yet so far.

Berger said the city sponsors a Juneteenth event to commemorate the end of slavery, then said that although the city doesn’t support it he is a fan of Pickle’s Blues Fest. I give him points for mentioning Pickle’s event, although I’m not sure which of the two candidates was more patronizing to the black man asking the question. Thomas clearly needed to be told it’s not the mayor’s job to bring radio stations to the city. But, no, not from our uber problem-solvers.

A Ron-condensed version of the exchange:

Thomas: Can you get me a black radio station?

Beck: I’ll get crime out of your ‘hood.

Berger: I like the blues.

This just in from Lima mayoral candidate Dan Beck’s latest YouTube ad: Lima has a gang problem about which voters might not be scared enough, if they even know about it. I think the point of the video is the gang problem most of us don’t know about or feel afraid enough about. But it could be that Mayor David Berger is responsible for dead dogs.

I have a dog, so I can get behind that anger. It takes three minutes into this six-minute video to realize the Beck campaign is trying to highlight the “gang problem,” so I already was on the phone with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals before I realized I was supposed to be taking back Lima by voting to get rid of pooch hater Dave.

The video does make up for the late mention of gangs. It replays - over and over and over, then over and over and over again - the woman whose house burned down saying they don’t think there’s a gang problem here. Hey, great, Dan, pretty sure you’ve got this woman’s vote. Oh, wait, no, she’s leaving Lima. So what does this video tell the rest of us as to why we want to vote for you?

Candidate Beck again is telling Lima voters there’s a problem without offering any idea of how he would address it.