Ocala Election: Our Favorites

If you have not yet made up your mind, here are our suggestions for the City of Ocala Elections.

For Mayor: William “Dude” Phelan.
A former city attorney, Phelan gets the nod for mayor. His past experience with city government gives him a slight edge over a new-comer to politics, business executive, Randy Ewers.

For City Council-District 1: Kyle Kay.
Kay is currently serving very effectively as a city councilman. He has good conservative values when it comes to budget issues. We go with the incumbent Kay over Rusty Juergens in this race. Juergens business experience running a hair salon is commendable. However, it does not give him any advantage over Kay’s financial experience as an executive at Ocala National Bank.

For City Council-District 3: Charlie Ruse Jr.
Neither of the candidates for this district really thrills us. An attorney, Ruse gets the nod. Primarily, because we believe bar owner Bobby Tillander is entering politics for the wrong reasons.

For City Council-District 5: Daniel Owen.
We believe Owen, like Kyle Kay, has done a good job as an incumbent councilman. Why the local REC would even want pastor Sam Riggs in this race is hard to understand! Perhaps to give Riggs some name recognition for a future race, and the experience of being beaten by Owen. Riggs is a nice man. However, compared to Owen, he is a lightweight in dealing with complex situations; just ask some of the members of the defunct County Library Advisory Board he served with.

City residents, please make a difference and vote on October 18!

Paying For Katrina: Get The Pork Out Of Our Federal Budget

Our U.S. House and Senate have a major opportunity to help pay for Hurricane Katrina via the removal of many “pork” projects from our federal budget.

To date it doesn’t look like this excellent idea is catching on. One of our bloggers sent a website that details what each Representative and Senator has committed to reducing the pork from the budget.

See what is happening on “pork removal” at: http://truthlaidbear.com/porkbusters.php

As you will see, the commitments are very disappointing.

Please write to your Congressman/Senator and encourage them to get busy on getting the pork out of the federal budget.

Legislative Redistricting: Want A New Method?

Two Constitutional Amendment ballot initiatives are being proposed to change the way legislative districts are determined in Florida. A petition drive to get them on the ballot in 2006 is underway. Here is the ballot summary of the two Amendments:

(1) Independent Non-Partisan Commission To Apportion Legislative and Congressional Districts Which Replaces Apportionment By Legislature.
Creates a fifteen member commission replacing legislature to apportion single-member legislative districts in the year following each decennial census. Establishes non-partisan method of appointment to commission. Disqualifies certain persons for membership to avoid partiality. Limits commission members from seeking office under plan for four years after service on commission. Requires ten votes for commission action. Requires Florida Supreme Court to apportion districts if commission fails to file a valid plan.

(2) Additional Standards To Be Followed In Apportioning Legislative And Congressional Districts. Establishes additional standards for legislative and congressional districts beyond those set forth in the state constitution. Requires that districts be compact, and where practicable, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries; that districts, where practicable, preserve communities of interest; that districts not be drawn to favor an incumbent, political party or other person; that competitive districts should be favored and that districts not consider the residence of any individual, except to comply with the constitution or laws of the United States.

More details on each are available at the following Ballot Initiatives site:

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/initiatives/initiativelist.asp

Basically, these amendments, if passed, would take the determination of legislative districts out of the hands of our state legislature and place it in the hands of an independent, non-partisan commission. These amendments will be highly debated, and we would like your point of view on them:

Would you favor or oppose these amendments, and why or why not?

Click on “Comments” below and let us hear from you.

County School Board Members: How Are They Doing?

We had several suggestions to focus discussion on our Marion County School Board, a group that is composed of five Republicans: Sue Moseley, Kurt Kelly, Ron Crawford, Steve Herring and Judi Zanetti.

The Board is faced with many challenges. Just to name a few: cost over runs on construction projects, low school grades, teacher shortages, overcrowding, parental concerns with the focus on FCAT, aging school buses, role of impact fees in school finances.

So here is our question for September:

What is your opinion of the job being done by our five Marion County School Board members?

Please click on Comments below and give us your thoughts.

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