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Young candidate runs lean, green campaign

With a campaign she calls lean and green, one of the youngest candidates to ever run for Carlsbad City Council is practicing what she preaches.
Evan Delaney Rodgers is refusing all campaign contributions to be free of “special-interest influences,” and has chosen to skip the hiring of a campaign consultant or speechwriter, and instead run a one-woman campaign with the use of her Web site.
And come November, you will not see her campaign signs “littering” the intersections either, because, as she points out, they clog the landfills.
Hard to believe someone with such progressive ideas is a rookie in the political arena, but already the 18-year-old college junior has quite a following.
Many of the signatures needed to put her name on the ballot came from parents of children awaiting the city’s new skate park and swim complex.
“Carlsbad has doubled in population since 1990,” she said. “Kids can’t get into swim lessons because the city has simply outgrown the Monroe pool. It’s a public safety issue.”
Rodgers said she often spoke to the City Council when the issue of the new swim complex was on the agenda, and encouraged them to move forward with the new facility.
“Every time I spoke to the City Council, dozens of people — most of them strangers — would stop me on the sidewalks, in stores and in parking lots and thank me for speaking up for their family about the Alga Norte Park and Aquatic Center,” she said.
At a recent event a skate park, parents encouraged her to run for office and shared their concern about issues ranging from open space to underage drinking, cyber bullies and even having WiFi in the Village.
Although Rodgers was born in Grand Prairie, Texas, she has lived in North County for the past 11 years. She currently resides in the Rancho Carrillo area.
“This is my hometown,” Rodgers said. “Carlsbad has so much to be proud of and so much potential.”
For more information, or to contact Rodgers, visit www. CleanCarlsbad.com.