As election season ramps up toward Nov. 5, candidate endorsements by local current elected officials is amazing to me. A vote or endorsement is not a valentine. When selecting a candidate to fill a position, we aren’t picking the most popular or the “nicest” for political leadership. Or the best cheerleader.  All jobs, including elected positions, should be filled by voting for — or endorsing — the most qualified person for the position, regardless of any other factor.  A candidate is either qualified for a job or is not. Tim Burkhart is supremely qualified for our City Council in District 1, which will be on this November’s ballot. He is imminently more qualified than his opponent. It is not even close. His decades-long experience running global maintenance operations for Magic Mountain proves this.   So why would elected officials support Tim Burkhart’s opponent? Why are they backing a clearly subpar candidate to the exclusion of a superior candidate in Tim Burkhart? Two words: power and control. Tim Burkhart has been on the city’s Planning Commission for over two decades. He knows his stuff. More importantly, Tim Burkhart is not a person who can be controlled, influenced or manipulated. He is not a person who will do what the powers that be want done in order for them to maintain their power, their control, their influence.   District 1 deserves a quality, qualified candidate regardless of identity politics. The switch to district elections was not to guarantee a minority result — otherwise why even have an election? The city — and more importantly, all of us — will lose out if uber-qualified Tim Burkhart is tossed aside by electeds in this town endorsing an unquaified candidate in the District 1 City Council race.  Anna Meeks Santa Clarita The post Anna Meeks | Not Just the Best Cheerleader appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.