Our Observation

Maitland was thrown for a loop when Howard Schieferdecker was appointed vice mayor last week, setting him up to take resigning Mayor Doug Kinson's job in January by default. But for some, that decision may not have come as a shock at all.

America has had a thirst for new political blood for years. Schieferdecker, experienced or not, is as fresh as it gets on Maitland's City Council.

Like the tidal wave of "change" that pushed Barack Obama to victory in the 2008 presidential election, a desire for a fresh perspective pushed Schieferdecker into the mayor's seat.

"I feel you're actually in an advantageous position," Kinson said of Schieferdecker's greenness on the Council, having just been elected three months earlier.

But at the national level, a year and a half into Obama's term of office, an enthusiasm gap is growing. The idealism of those feverish days leading up to Nov. 4, 2008 has waned in the face of a less optimistic reality spawned from hundreds of years of ever-convoluting political machinery.

As the rosy picture painted by a campaign of change finds itself tinged with red tape, we're losing hope that change really can come so swiftly with just one new leader.

Can Maitland find a way to defeat its political demons with a new mayor and a new councilperson? Will the dream of a revitalized downtown Maitland spring to life over the course of only one political term?

Come January, Maitland will start to see what new blood can do at the head of the Council.

Despite the imminence of Schieferdecker's ascension, it's not immediate. For six months, he'll have the tutelage of Kinson to guide him slowly into his official position, rather than an instant shove into the spotlight without any experience.

For Schieferdecker, a longtime tennis coach, it's time to take some lessons himself, and Kinson has already jumped at the chance to act as mentor to his successor.

"I can get to work with the person who will come forward for about six months before they have to take over," Kinson said. "When I first took over, nobody was teaching me or helping me."

But in that position there lies a caveat: Regardless of Kinson's intentions to help guide Schieferdecker in his transition, there's a risk of appearing as if he's shaping a political clone.

In the summer of 2008, as Obama's message of change was propelling him in the polls, a transparent political dynasty was taking flack in Russia. For more than two years, there have been cries that former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has continued to control the country despite being succeeded to the presidency by Dmitry Medvedev in 2008.

But those cries have come largely from the minority in the country, as Putin has remained popular within Russia, having grown the economy dramatically over the course of more than two terms as president.

It's a political tightrope for Maitland's mayor and mayor to be. Kinson is hoping his judgment and strong popularity as mayor will see him elected to the Orange County Commission in November. He's also hoping that Schieferdecker will give Maitland a fresh face and new perspective.

Regardless of Kinson's influence, what voters will see in January will be the result of one man's decision. Schieferdecker will have to prove that he can be mayor on his own terms.