School Board Candidates: Who Would You Pick?

Governor Crist, in the next few weeks, will be making an important appointment to the County School Board to replace Kurt Kelly. The seven current applicants who meet the residency requirement are:

Community activist Pat Gabriel; real estate broker, former Dunnellon City Council member Valerie Porter-Hanchar; Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association executive vice president Richard "Dick" Hancock; educator and community activist Roosevelt Rimes; former UF football star, Judd Davis; lawyer Stephen Shaw; Howard Gunn, chairman of Front Porch Ocala.

We would like to hear your thoughts on the candidates. Tell us what you know about the strengths and weaknesses of these candidates for our School Board. Who would best serve our community on one of our most important local governmental bodies? Also, what do you think about the effort to encourage the Governor to appoint a minority to the position? Let’s hear from you.

Also, you can convey your thoughts (recommendation or otherwise) to the Governor about a particular candidate(s) via letter at:

Office of Governor Charlie Crist
Appointments Office
The Capitol, LL10
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0001

Property Tax Reform: Will It Kill Local Government Services?

The Property Tax Reform Legislation recently enacted by our State legislature has created much debate. Additionally, the more impactful Constitutional Amendment (to be voted on by all of us in January 2008) substantially increasing the Homestead Exemptions is also a hot topic.

The Tax Reform efforts have placed local governments and our Tallahassee State government (i.e., Governor, legislators, etc.) in conflict. State government telling the local government you have to cut back, and local government retorting they will have to cut many essential services to do so. Importantly, many taxpayers are saying the legislation is inadequate in the savings provided to property owners.

Our county government, for example, will need to initially cut back spending by about 7% to comply with recently adopted spending caps via the legislation. The real problem comes on requiring more substantial local spending reductions in future years to comply with the Constitutional Amendment, should it pass in January.

We would like to hear from you. Is the legislature going in the right direction (or not far enough) or is it forcing local government to cut too deeply? Are we seeing political posturing by the legislature and/or some “crying wolf” at the local levels?

The Tax Reform legislation is complex. Here is a link to give you a relatively easy to understand summary of what has been enacted:

http://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:5543.628249069/rid:0fd35931699c494784390035a997db3b

Kurt Kelly: Does He Have A Golden Opportunity?

There has been much controversy surrounding Kurt Kelly’s election to State Representative, especially the closing of the primary via a write-in candidate. Could it be that Mr. Kelly now has a great opportunity to improve his credibility and demonstrate his concern for ALL of his constituents?

Perhaps Mr. Kelly should give strong consideration, in one of his first acts as a freshman legislator in 2008, to introducing a bill to correct the law that allows the closing of a primary by a write-in candidate. What better way to demonstrate his leadership, influence and serving-the-people skills than to take on tough issues like this one from the get go as our legislator.

Mr. Kelly could win over a considerable number of voters (including many from his own Party) who felt, possibly unfairly, that he played a role in Ms. Stacy’s action to close the primary. Importantly, it would reinforce the integrity of what he has consistently told the media and voters about not being involved in the write-in decision, and being very supportive of an open primary.

Tell us what you think: Should Kurt Kelly make this bill a key part of his legislative agenda in 2008? Why or why not?

Also, vote in our Straw Poll on the subject:

http://www.insitefulsurveys.com/Survey.asp?SI=161384712687

Are Voters Saying “We Vote For NONE OF THE ABOVE”?

If you had a party and over 90% of those you invited didn’t show up, would you feel rejected?

The turnout for our local General Election seems to reflect public sentiment about politics in general. With the popularity rating for our President and our Democrat controlled U.S. Congress at record lows and growing concerns about the lack of good solutions to some of the important problems our State and local governments are facing, voters seem to have just stepped back and said “no interest”.

Obviously, turnout was not that good for the Senate District #3 and House District #24 races (8.7%). The predicted winners (Dean/Kelly) won, but most voters seem to be sitting back and hoping for a more competitive slate of candidates in 2008.

A further indication of voter dissatisfaction can be gleaned from the unusually good performance of write-in candidate Nancy Stacy. Some bloggers said she would be lucky to garner 20 votes. Others said anything over 0.5% should be considered good; which is probably the most valid historic measure of any. Ms. Stacy received 8.0% and 433 votes. The write-in candidate in Senate District #3 (Kaarl Brandon) who ran an active campaign, received 0.7% and 66 votes.

Our take on the Stacy result is that it reflects a “protest” of continued voter dissatisfaction with the quality of candidates and/or the election process itself.

What do the election results tell you? Let us know.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Final Election results indicate Nancy Stacy's vote count was smaller than originally reported. Here is what the Election Office had to say: 433 (8.0%) voters chose "write-in" on their ballots, and of those 149 (2.8%) wrote in Stacy's name. Other entries included "none of the above" and "any Democrat," the elections office reported.

Write-In Campaign: Who's Participating?

IS THIS FOR REAL?.... We heard there is an active, ongoing campaign to get voters to write in Nancy Stacy for House of Representatives, District #24. The campaign seems to have been started by:

A sizable group of voters from all political parties who are sending a signal of their dissatisfaction with Kurt Kelly as a candidate and/or the method one of his supporters used to prevent a majority of District 24 registered voters from being eligible to vote in the primary.

We want to hear from you. Will the effort to encourage writing in Ms. Stacy for House District #24 get more support or will it fizzle out? Tell us what you think.

There’s discussion about Stacy’s write in on the thread below this one. Take a look at those comments, and then continue the discussion here.

Also, participate in our Straw Poll concerning whether or not you will write in Ms. Stacy on the ballot. Click the link below:

http://www.insitefulsurveys.com/Survey.asp?SI=688410812652

Special Election Results: Sound Off!

The primary phase of the Special Election is now history. Congratulations to the winners:

Senate-District #3

Republican: Charlie Dean

Democrat: Suzan Franks

House District #24

Republican: Kurt Kelly

So tell us, did your favorite win? Why or why not? Let’s hear from you on anything else you might want to comment about concerning the Special Election.

Let the discussion continue!