10. Tim’s lack of experience is not an issue. Every mayor we elect for the first time is inexperienced at being mayor and has to learn on the job. He has shown by his enthusiastic agitation for opening Athens government up for everybody that he’s willing to work hard and learn what needs to be done.

9. Tim knows Athens—the hard way. He has been out there for a long time now, going door-to-door, meeting people, listening to their concerns. He is not telling them what they want to hear; he’s out in the neighborhoods listening to what people want to tell him. He has a sidewalk-smarts grasp of our city and its needs.

8. Tim is an outsider. He’s in nobody’s pocket. He operates out in the open, not behind closed doors. This is important for our government and for our city. We need a mayor who includes everybody in the decision-making, not just an inner circle. That’s the way Tim works; that’s the way he would work in the mayor’s office.

7. Tim would be the best thing that could happen to the Athens-Clarke County Commission. He would have to rely on its members for their knowledge of government. The commission would immediately come out of its dormant state and start taking care of the people’s business. The mayor and commission would work as a team, the way they’re supposed to do.

6. Tim would bring a youthful perspective to our government, and that’s extremely important in a college town which is increasingly resigning itself to old, do-nothing attitudes that favor the status quo and fear rocking the boat. Athens desperately needs somebody who will shake things up and try new solutions to the same old problems that bedevil us day after day.

5. Tim’s ideas for Athens are on the cutting edge in meeting the challenges we face. For instance, he sees our potential for a free and frequent, combined city and campus bus system, while our government is busy kicking our citizens off the university system, because our expensive-and-infrequent system can’t compete. Another example of why we need Tim’s vision.

4. Tim has a sense of humor and knows how to use it to make a point. He’s willing to dress up as Charles Darwin to promote a write-in campaign against our science-denying congressman. Tim is completely serious about the need to improve government, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

3. Tim is focused on our most important issues. He is committed to addressing the problems of poverty that get swept under the rug while almost 40 percent of our citizens live in poverty. Tim reminds us constantly that this burden, which crushes so many, also affects our whole community—schools, public health, public safety and our local economy. 

2. Tim “gets” Athens. He’s a musician. He’s a homeowner. He works a 9-5 job and then goes out and tries to improve his community. He understands how Athens works, how it depends on the university, how it attracts people from all economic, social, racial, sexual and educational strata. He understands the importance of making our government work for everybody.

1. The No. 1 reason to elect Tim Denson mayor of Athens: He believes in and works for “An Athens for Everyone.”