post-election hangover – Florida Keys and beyond
Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
By the slightest of margins, more Keys voters voted for Barack Obama.
Results in the District 3 School Board race:
Ed Davidson 16,410 (50.05%)
John Welsh 16,264 (49.60%)
Write-in (me) 115 (0.35%)
I drove down to Key West yesterday evening to watch the returns at the Harvey Government Center, where the action was aired on the county’s television station. The commentators were Bill Becker and Ezra Marcus, of US 1 Radio, and Ron Saunders, outgoing Florida House of Representative who lost the Florida Senate race in the August primary.
Along toward the end of the broadcast Bill invited me to the dais. I told the audience that I had covered school district issues the other candidates did not cover. There were lots of important things besides the school district’s financing that needed to be addressed. I would not go home and cry over not winning, but I was watching how the votes I was getting might influence such a tight race – at that time, John Welsh was ahead by about 100 votes – because I could not imagine people who voted for me voting for John Welsh. I said I liked Ed Davidson and John Welsh, they were good men, but were different in their outlook. As it ended up, it does not appear to me that I affected the final outcome.
What I may have affected, I told the audience came with the one candidate forum I did not attend. I stayed home and worked on an email, after talking with Todd German, about how the selection of the new Superintendent Schools at the next day’s School Board meeting could be done one of two ways. One way could be gamed, rigged, the other way could not. I explained the two methods and urged the School Board to use the method which could not be gamed, rigged, which they did use. I told the audience I remain convinced, if the other selection method had been used, the School Board would have chosen Jesus Jara to remain on as Superintendent and we would not now have Mark Porter as our Superintendent.
Mark was in the audience. He had told me earlier that he soon will drive up to Minnesota to bring his wife down here to live, Thanksgiving always was their target date for her to move to the Keys. I said I was glad for that. Mark said it had been lonely. I said he needs all the back up he can get. He smiled.
When Ezra Marcus said he figured I would run again, yes?, I said I really do not like politics, obvious I am not a politician, I never win a race – chuckles in the audience. However, if the angels tell me to run again, yes, I will run again. Driving home, I thought that God must really not like me to keep me running for office. And, I wondered what I will be given to do next? I have no clue.
Andy Griffiths got 61.5 percent of the vote in the District 2 School Board race, in which 1,269 more votes were cast than in the District 3 School Board race. Andy told me that maybe my endorsement of him (a joke, I had endorsed Yvette Mira-Talbott) had made the difference. I laughed, said maybe if it had been a close race my endorsement might have won the race for him.
I always wonder how my endorsing someone will turn out; will it cost that person votes? However, Democrat Steve Smith eked out a win over Steve Hammond in that Mosquito Board race, after I published that I had voted for Steve Smith because I felt he came off better at candidate forums.
Democrat Cathy Vogel easily won the State Attorney race against former Republican State Attorney Mark Kohl, who was defeated in 2008 by Democrat Dennis Ward. Cathy told the audience that she has no plans to fire anyone in the State Attorney Office, but if an opening comes up which Mark Kohl might fit … Cathy said throughout her campaign that she is a professional, not a politician … We’ll see about that in the coming four years …
Larry Murray told me last night that Gwen Filosa, who has covered School District news, now will cover City of Key West news, and John De Santis, who has covered City news, will cover School District news …
In the race for the White House … One news commentator and a Republican leader said the Republican Party got handed a loud message – old, white, rich men are not getting the job done for their Party… Looks to me 55 percent of women who voted in that race told the biggest part of that loud message, and Hispanics told the second biggest part … That Romney got slightly more of the popular vote proves, as have other times when the winner of the White House got less of the popular vote than the loser, America is not a democracy in that race … The way the electoral votes went indicated that Romney and the Republican Party were seriously out-smarted by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party … That, and a campaign ad Romney ran in Ohio, claiming a Jeep factory would be closed and moved overseas, which, true or not, was viewed as untrue by people who worked in that factory and word of that got out and perhaps tipped the scales just enough to give Ohio to Obama, which was all she rote for Romney, Florida yet undecided no longer a factor in the final outcome …
What the Florida vote might have done, given how late some voters had to wait in line to vote last night, was put extreme heat on Republican Governor Rick Scott and his Republican allies in the Florida Senate and House of Representatives to heed our own outgoing Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer’s admonition that more days of early voting is better than less days. It is a national embarrassment to Florida that it was so difficult for Florida voters to vote before the polls closed yesterday evening.
The balance of power in Washington D.C. did not change in this election, and unless the Republicans and the Democrats are smitten by a true desire to put America first, little will change … But I don’t see either side really wants to balance the US budget, stop operating the government on credit cards, and stop spending more on the US military than all the rest of the countries in the world combined spend on their military … I think it will take something not yet imagined on Capitol Hill, and in America, to bring real change, real hope …
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Following up on what I wrote in yesterday’s propaganda and facts easily confused – Florida Keys and national politics post about The Key West Citizen Editorial Board endorsing Mitt Romney …
From: TGerman@my100bank.com
Subject: Sunday Editorial Date:
Tue, 6 Nov 2012 16:56:16 +0000
Sloan,
You made one glaring mistake in today’s post which I feel is very significant.You incorrectly stated that Tom Tuell’s name was listed at the top of Sunday’s Editorial page.It was NOT.Seems he saw fit to remove his name while leaving all the others.We had a name for that type of behavior in the Army.
I have pasted the staff part of the header from Sunday below.
EDITORIAL BOARD
PAUL A. CLARIN/PUBLISHER
TOM TUELL/EDITOR
RALPH MORROW/SPORTS EDITOR
The endorsement of Mitt Romney was a surprise to most on the Editorial Board and I believe was driven from the corporate headquarters. The paper’s policy of not endorsing candidates outside this one instance still stands as far as I know. If anything, this situation is an example of the futility of making endorsements. As I am one of the more publicly known members of the Editorial Board, I received plenty of feedback about Sunday’s paper. You might find it interesting that the feedback was pretty much evenly split.
We have an Editorial Board Meeting this afternoon and I expect it will be very interesting.
Todd German
| Business Development Officer Tel 305.942.1611 Centennial Bank | 701 Whitehead St | Key West, FL 33040 Web www.my100bank.com |Blog community.my100bank.com
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When Todd called me later yesterday, I said Tom Tuell is a good weasel, I have felt that way about him for a while … the editorial staff head I used yesterday was above yesterday’s editorial on climate change …
EDITORIAL BOARD
PAUL A. CLARIN/PUBLISHER
TOM TUELL/EDITOR
RALPH MORROW/SPORTS EDITOR
—————————————————-
NANCY SCHMOHL BECKWITH
ROBERT CINTRON, JR
KEN DOMANSKI
SHIRLEY FREEMAN
TODD GERMAN
I also said …
The Citizen lying to the people of the Florida Keys that the Romney endorsement was the product of The Citizen’s Editorial Board was a capital offense, spiritually, and if The Citizen doesn’t make that right in a follow up editorial or article, that is another capital offense … in which event, it becomes incumbent on each member of the Editorial Board to explain what happened in a letter to the editor, which is published… this is not something the Editorial Board should deal with behind close doors, because The Citizen made it a public issue… I was not surprised, given how close the presidential race was, that Todd was receiving about equal yays and nays for the editorial … in four years, everyone – candidates, political parties, elected officials, voters – will have conveniently forgotten everything they said leading up to the election, because of all the crow they will otherwise have to eat …
Further thoughts yesterday …
… already, the Democrats forgot Barack Obama continued to wage George W. Bush’s two stupid, fiscally and spiritually ruinous wars, and the Republicans already forgot George W. Bush gave up trying to catch Osama bin Laden, whom Barack Obama caught and killed …
…if I were the new president, in my inaugural address I would tell Congress that it’s on them to pass a balanced budget, and I don’t care what they cut or keep, I will veto any budget they come up with, which is not balanced and the American people will see crystal clear who will not balance the budget …
…maybe in four years’ time, a substantial number of Americans will be so fed up that they write “None of the above” for presidential and other races… imagine the attention that would get in America, and beyond …
…maybe how Hispanics backed President Obama will convince our School Board that every Keys school kid should be reading, writing and speaking Spanish and English before entering high school …
To see The Key West Citizen’s several articles on the elections, click on keysnews.com and pay the 50 cent fee with your credit card … lots more letters to the editor today about the editorial endorsing Mitt Romney …
The city voters passed the vague referendum allowing some unspecified resolutions and ordinances to be passed by a supermajority or unanimous vote of the City Commission …
The city voters also passed the referendums moving City Commission races to even-numbered years and giving the Mayor more responsibility/prestige (power) … Apparently, the Mayor race will continue to be held in odd-numbered years …
Sloan Bashinsky
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