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I strongly believe being mayor is the public post in which you have the greatest opportunity to change peoples' lives for the better. People live in cities, not states or nations. As a mayor, you are connected directly to citizens.

I really do believe that mayors have the political position to really change people's lives.

I may not be the world's best glad-handing politician, but I've been elected mayor twice. I understand politics. And I definitely understand where the state line is.

The most important thing a mayor does is hire talented people to run the city.

I am convinced that your Mayor must take the leadership role in education too.

The job of mayor and Governor is becoming more and more like the job of university president, which I used to be; it looks like you are in charge, but you are not.

As a former mayor, I know that local governments must have control over land use decisions.

The mayor has got to work closely with a wide variety of people, his city council, state legislature, governor, business community, labor community, president and the congress in order to be able to do this.

What the mayors care about is, 'How can I get money to invest in the infrastructure in my city? How do we put people back to work, lower the unemployment rate, provide for job training programs? How do we make class sizes smaller and make investments in our children from an education standpoint?'

I firmly believe that we can protect taxpayer dollars, bus drivers' jobs, and the safety of our students. We just need a mayor who actually cares about all three.