David Lapidus is a freshman running for the vacant seat in the Dane County Board. The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Lapidus about his views on the position.
DC: Why are you running?
Lapidus: I am running to effect positive change in Dane County.
DC: Can you expand on that?
Lapidus: Basically, there's no other position available to a student really, where you can affect so many people in so many different ways in a positive manner than the Dane County Board, so that's why I decided I had to run.
DC: Specifically, if you're elected, what differences are going to be effected in Dane County by the end of your term?
Lapidus: I'd like a tenant rating system, like ratemyprofessor.com, where you can rate landlords and buildings, which landlords are assholes, which landlords are cool, which buildings you get a bang for your buck. You could even do which dorms, which RAs are typically nicer, that kind of stuff [...] On the one hand, in the area of safety, I would try to get the jail-overcrowding problem sorted out. On the one hand, solving overcrowding by having alternative sentences'but only for nonviolent offenders, not convicted rapists or murderers. Same for minor crimes like marijuana abuse; it would solve for overcrowding in the prisons, and the costs as such. [...] Also, at the same time trying to get the non-enforcement of marijuana laws, which I've stated a few times earlier in press releases in campaign. It's possible for the District Attorney's office and the county jail to get sentences and punishments for those crimes so low they'll basically become paper laws. On the other hand, transportation, trying to get a system, a carpool system, private sector run that will basically allow students to have the flexibility of a cab service with the cheapness of a bus. It's the system that is being employed right now at the University of Oregon, and I think would work very well here.
DC: Do you have any criticisms or comments regarding your opponents?
Lapidus: I would call myself the candidate who has real solutions to real Dane County problems, and has very good solvency for solutions. I don't think the other candidates have that necessarily. [...] I have a plan to solve for the safety of the people in the county [...] I have a plan to deal with the transportation issues this county has. I have a plan to deal with unjust laws that are being used at the county level right now and dealing with those, like with marijuana. [...] I'm also trying to reach out to everybody. My opponents in this campaign are calling themselves Democrats or Progressive Danes, I'm just running as David Lapidus.
DC: How will your position on the Student Services' Finance Committee prepare you for this position?
Lapidus: What gives me a step up above the other candidates is I have up-to-date, current knowledge on student issues. None of the other candidates can touch me there, because I'm the only one who's been on ASM this year, and the only one who's been on a very significant committee that deals with budgets of student organizations and programs which are vital and very influential for the students and everyday lives of students on campus.
