During the last eight years, our mayor’s office was filled by another Harley rider who turned out to be great for bikers. He rode in the local Toy Run, gave away the grand prize to the raffle winners of our blood drives, made sure we got our parade permits, and much, much more. So we thought what the heck, and we let mayoral candidate Oscar Leeser, come to the store.

In 2010, when the Sun Bowl was in danger of losing corporate sponsorship, Mr. Leeser stepped in and found funding, allowing us to continue El Paso’s tradition of hosting a college football bowl game. He is also known as a very thrifty person, someone who watches his dollars and gets his money’s worth when building or purchasing something. The city’s Quality of Life project, which will cost more than $500 million over the next ten years, could benefit from his oversight. In fact, if he is given the opportunity to monitor the project as mayor, we might get twice as much for our money. Our city, like many others, is known for spending much, much more on any given building than a private businessperson would. In these tough times, it would be great if we could forego that tradition. We made the decision as a city to borrow that money; we should insist that it get spent wisely.

I was impressed that Mr. Leeser wanted to meet riders, and honored that he chose us to host his event. There are many riders in town now, about 4500 registered Harley riders and probably close to that in all the other brands combined. When looking at voting numbers, we are a pretty big group–big enough to sway a close election.

Part of his curiosity was likely due to the charitable reputation of bikers in El Paso. There are about 40 organized runs a year; and we post them in large letters on our building marquee sign for the 120,000 cars passing each way each day to see. We also list the charity that the money is being raised for, so that the general public is made aware that these runs are not just parties, but community work on behalf of the motorcyclists. I think this has really paid off for not only the beneficiaries of the charity money raised, but also for the bikers themselves. People, and now candidates, are beginning to recognize the riders as above average citizens, people who are trying to make a difference in their local community.

Finally, I noticed how incredibly diverse the motorcyclists have become. There were hardcore bikers from tougher clubs, several religious clubs, lots of businesspeople, school teachers, military, and other politicians. The diversity of our biking community was also evident in the wide variety of questions posed to Mr. Leeser. He was peppered with questions from individuals, as 85% of his time was spent mingling. During the remaining time, he gave a quick speech outlining what he would like to do for our city. Overall, it was kind of fun, not sure if we’ll do it again. But there were no protestors and only a few nasty complaints on Facebook. We’ll see how that shakes out over time.