Category Archives: Local politics

Ropen Nalbandian.  Zabel Thur de Koos.  Star Wars characters?  Maybe PK5 is their home planet?  And maybe Buick-El is their colleague from the planet Krypton?  Or comet Jee-Em? Well, even if they are aliens, at least they register their multiple identities with the state of Florida.

Without multiple identities, our shape-shifting masters of the muni-verse wouldn’t be able to endow the hopes’n’aspirations of their chosen enamorati.

In Follow the Money #3, I’ll look at the campaign reports filed February 28 and March 7.  They cover the three weeks from Feb 8 through Feb 28.

But first, let’s get an overview of the entire campaign’s big spenders who spread their generosity around.  Except where noted, all this municipal munificence accrued to the three “anti-establishment” candidacies of Chase, Carter, and Orlando.

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It was all so predictable–the local Democratic party sends out a mailer endorsing their favorites in the three City Commission races and depicting their main opponents as favorites of the local Tea Party.

“A flat out lie,” Craig Carter calls it.  The Tea Party does not formally endorse, insists Tea Party president Laurie Newsom [emphases added].

(Here’s a link to the Gainesville Sun article, “Democratic campaign mailer causes a stir at forum“.)

It reminds me of an old country saying and an old joke.

The saying: If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that yips is the one that was hit.

You see, as I described elsewhere, the first thousand dollars that came into Carter’s campaign was from Tea Party activists Kathy and Tom Benton and Republican State Representative Keith Perry. (See Carter’s campaign  report here.)

Other Tea Party notables among his contributors include Carolyn Yoho, Annette Armstrong, Laurie Newsom, Rod Gonzalez, and County Commissioner Susan Baird.

The joke is about the senator who’s off campaigning in his home state.   He gets a frantic call from someone on his staff in D.C., “Senator, you gotta come right back to Washington–they’re tellin’ awful lies about you up here!”

And the senator says, “I got a bigger problem than that, boy – they’re telling the truth about me down here!”

(And here’s the link to Laurie Newsom’s post on gainesvilleteaparty.org where she says “please plan to attend this meeting for Annie Orlando… If you cannot attend then please donate to her campaign.”)

(Likewise, here’s the non-endorsement of Craig Carter.)

But there’s no endorsement! It’s all just a coincidence…

Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice?

According to his campaign report filed on February 28, Craig Carter received the following contributions on February 9:

• Ropen Nalbandian $250
• John Pastore $250
• Mitch Glaeser $100
• John Martin $50
•  Laurie Newsom $50
• JoAnn Whitworth $50

Also, according to her campaign report filed on February 28, Annie Orlando received the following contributions on February 9:

• Ropen Nalbandian $250
• John Pastore $250
• Mitch Glaeser $100
• John Martin $50
• Laurie Newsom $50
• JoAnn Whitworth $50
• Betsy Whitaker $35 (in-kind, for snacks and beverages)

So, I’m thinking, maybe somebody had a little private fund-raiser and said, “OK, folks, let’s get out our checkbooks.”  If that’s the case, it amounts to more than a 4,000% return on investment, which means Betsy is the financial genius that a lot of people have long suspected.

Or as Carter and Orlando might say, “Thank heaven for coincidence!“

In my post about the reporting of campaign contributions I stated, “it takes considerable time, effort and specialized knowledge … to dredge up such information.”  And that’s what I’ve been doing: expending considerable time and effort dredging up the sources of funding in the City Commission races.  Eventually I’ll write up a how-to so others can carry the torch in future years.

Overview

The race for the at-large seat is really between Annie Orlando and Helen Warren.  The other three candidates, Barbara Ann Ruth, Mark Venzke and Don Shepherd, are all off the radar; they’ll do well to get 5% of the vote combined.

Incumbent Todd Chase is a shoo-in in District 2, made up of the Republican-leaning suburban precincts of northwest Gainesville.  He faces only token opposition from Cheri Brodeur and Sheryl Eddie.  Brodeur has eschewed accepting contributions, and Eddie may as well have, as both will prove unable to mount credible campaigns.  Brodeur has promised an aggressive door-to-door campaign in the district and if successful it may bring her close to the “dead man vote” I’ve written about elsewhere.

District 3 encompasses the mostly UF-oriented city precincts west of the campus.  Incumbent Susan Bottcher has a well-funded opponent in Craig Carter, but it would be an unprecedented upset if he were to prevail.

While there is a supposed contribution limit of $250 per person, Florida law has long expanded the definition of “person” to include corporations and organizations, thus rendering the contribution limit a hoax.  Want to contribute more than $250? No problem! File the papers, pay the fee, write the check to the candidate of your choice. As many times as you want.

I’m going to be concerned here with the heavy hitters.  Let’s get started…

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Tuesday the Alachua County Commission wisely chose to postpone action on the proposal for a county-wide sales tax to fund transportation needs, even if, as reported, it was for the wrong reason, namely, waiting to see what the Gainesville City Commission would do on Thursday.

What’s wrong with that?  They need to wait even longer.  Here are three better reasons to delay final action:

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As of January 19 there are 8 announced candidates for 3 seats on the ballot in this spring’s Gainesville City Commission election. The qualifying period ends at noon on Friday, January 24th, so we’ll know then exactly whose names will appear on the March 11 ballot.

I’ll discuss the races in terms of the electability scale I came up with for my essay So Ya Wanna Be a Commissioner?  I’ll go into detail about the candidates’ scores after the qualifying period ends.

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