The August 30th post about the School Board voting guide has been updated to reflect the latest version in which more candidates got back to us. Read the comments section for more complete answers from some of the candidates.
This past month I sent out some requests for questions to include in a questionnaire for a voter guide. Very few people responded, so I tasked them with creating a guide for this site. I gave very few guidelines, so what you have here is the creation of the three individuals who cared enough to do the job. Click here to see it in PDF format. Then, you can print it up and give it away to your friends and neighbors. Or, you can forward it to all your email contacts who live in Alachua County.
I am putting out the call for another voting guide for the November election after the August 24 primaries are done. If you would like to be a part of that effort, contact me. If you just want to do it on your own and submit it to be included here, also contact me. You may have noticed that the candidates do not write here much, even though most of them have a username and password, and can blog here at will. So, here’s your chance to drag them out of their shells!
Thanks,
Don Marsh
by Chris Smiley Candidate for School Board District 5
After the business coalition forum was over I was disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to bring up the issue of school uniforms especially after I witnessed the passion against new taxes from commission candidates and guests. The school board recently mandated a uniform policy for all k-12 schools. This policy is far worse than a tax though because not only is it putting an undue financial burden on families, it restricts freedom of speech and expression.
The policy was founded on misconceptions and false premises. The research (including studies from the Journal of Educational Research and a 4 year tracking study by the Miami-Dade school district) shows that uniforms do not lessen dress code violations, nor do they have a positive affect on attendance, behavior, performance, or substance use. The main ‘issue’ as claimed by board members really comes down to enforcement of dress code standards already in place.
Some people say that uniforms aren’t that bad but for a public policy to be enacted that takes away rights, there has to be an overwhelming good to justify it. In the case of uniforms there is none. In fact there is no rational reason to have uniforms (and a million reasons against them but I’ll keep this post short).
In tough economic times parents will now have to buy a new wardrobe for their kids. (Don’t believe the farce that uniforms save money, no student wears uniforms outside of school. That means that the cost of uniforms is in addition to whatever regular clothes they buy.)
I couldn’t believe that the new policy was passed or that it was even brought up when there are pressing fundamental issues with education that actually affect performance in schools. (see my website)
There has been significant opposition to uniforms. All 7 high school principals wrote a letter to the board urging them to not pass the policy and to let them continue to enforce the dress code already in place. There have been a couple of protests already and a number of groups have been formed; legal action is anticipated. Whether you have children or not we all need to fight injustice and I urge all of you to email the board, to join one of the groups via facebook, or to connect with parents and dissenters (you can email me at chris.smiley@gmx.com).
Elected or not I will continue to work to reverse this policy.
My website- Fleducationreform.com
Letter from principals- http://notopolos.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/copy-of-the-letter-sent-to-school-board-from-alachua-county-school-principals/
This is just a simple web poll on the school board candidates. Please check out their web sites listed on the 2010 candidates’ page and then take the poll! Then pass it around to your friends! It’s almost like a real election…
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Back on May 19th Judge Hulslander dismissed the plaintiff’s request to overturn the April 13th elections results and the next day my opponent, Craig Lowe, was sworn in as the new Mayor of Gainesville. Only a week later I filed to run for At-large seat #2 on the city commission. Like the Mayor’s race, this will be run city-wide and it will be a non-partisan contest. It will be held on a date to be named later in March, 2011.
Why am I doing this? Because the issues will continue to be the same: rapacious utility rates and mismanagement of the city government. I have also had every encouragement from friends and strangers alike, and this has intensified since I filed. Whereas most conservatives who have lost have gone back to their business and gotten politics behind them, I have decided to build on the support that I have, and to start early. I need you to do the same. I need your financial support, and the sooner the better. If we lay the ground work now, everything will go much smoother later.
Please limit your contributions to $250 per person or business entity. Contributions over $100 must also list your occupation. Please make out your check and mail it to:
The Marsh Campaign
3904 NW 15 St.
Gainesville, FL 32605
( if you are happy with paying high taxes and enjoy a stagnant economy then ignore this)
As I near the deadline to qualify for the County Commission District 2 race , I , Walt Boyer, am left wondering if our Conservative voters are just going to sit back and watch as the Liberal majority maintain the stranglehold on our local governments that they have had for years. I am wondering how long will you sit back and allow your taxes to skyrocket just to fund projects that will only benifit the few. How long will you sit back and watch as businesses choose to become established in the surrounding counties instead of Alachua County because the regulations of our County are so unfreindly to business. How long will you sit back and do nothing knowing that your opinions or concerns are going unheeded.
It is time to make a stand and elect a person that has no special interest group affiliations and can openly and honestly represent the voice of the citizens of Alachua County. I encourage you to visit WWW.VOTEFORWALT.COM for more info on me or call 352-356-VOTE with any county concerns. I believe that in order to represent, you have to be in touch with how the citizens for whom you serve are feeling so I will always have an “open door” policy for anyone to voice concern or ideas on how to make our County better. So are you ready to step up and invest in a candidate that will pick the current budget apart line by line and make those responsible for the wasteful spending accountable to you the voter, that will invite clean industries and manufacterers to our County to ease unemployment and bring in more revenue, that will ease the regulations for small businesses to help stimulate our economy.We only have till June 14 and I know with your help our voice can be heard again. I need campaign donations to qualify and then we can work on presence in our communities
Just remember to make it a point to vote in November. Many Americans have given their lives to assure you have the freedom to do just that . Dont let your friends stay home, push everyone you know to register and vote.
I gripe about low voter turnout every year, so I am not doing it this year because I lost a runoff that went to a mandatory recount. On March 16th, in this University town, only 14% of voters cared enough to vote for their next mayor. In District 4, made up of the precincts that encompass parts downtown and much of the University, the turnout was only 11.8%. That means that 86% of Gainesville residents could not care less who governs them locally.
I was well aware of the low turnout, and for that reason I focused on our electric bills, which have been astronomical lately. I believe that 100% of Gainesville voters get their electric sewer and water from GRU, so it was reasonable to think this would get people to care enough to come out. I made sure that they knew that the city OWNS GRU, and that my opponent actually voted for the increases. This was never disputed in the various candidate forums nor in the press.
Of course, the press never really covered the issues. They spent a lot of time looking into the flyers someone made that warned about my opponent becoming Gainesville’s first gay mayor. Although it appears (if the voter turnout means anything) that this meant almost nothing on election day, this was the Maypole that the Sun and the Alligator continued to dance around throughout the campaigns. So, either the voting public was distracted by an irrelevant issue or people actually LIKE rapacious electric bills.
Unfortunately, there is probably something true about that last point. Each year, as the City of Gainesville continues to elect big spenders with huge appetites for your money, I tell other members of the Loyal Opposition that, “The people of this town like high taxes, gridlock, and less economic opportunity.” I actually met some of these people while knocking on doors throughout the city. I stumbled upon a dinner party at which I was invited to come in and pitch my candidacy. I started with our high electric bills and the millions that the city depends on getting from GRU to pay for their spending. The hostess told me we deserved to pay more because other people in the world were suffering. She could make no correlation between my high bills and the suffering of Darfur, but that didn’t matter. The argument seems to have more to do with Karma than logic.
I was going to post the results here, but I thought I would just send you to the Supervisor of Elections site for the complete results of both the March 16th general election and the April 13th Runoff. It includes a precincts by precinct breakdown so you can see what are the most apathetic (Precinct 31, Reitz Union, 1.95%) and most civic minded (Precinct 64, Westminster Presbyterian Church, 31.65%) parts of town are. That was in March. It April, it was the same precincts, only they improved to 2.45% and 42.51% respectively. The runoff actually had an improved turnout of 16.75%. Very sad indeed.
Ozzy Angulo, a Mayoral candidate who was eliminated on March 16, has returned as an audio journalist. He conducted these interviews with candidates Don Marsh and Craig Lowe, and each is almost an hour long. Please forward this around!
Our own toxic time bomb!
What kind of city official would claim to have saved a toxic waste disaster for just before an election? Craig Lowe is your man of action. He has been a city commissioner for 7 years, and now he wants to be your Mayor, Gainesville. Cabot/Koppers has been an EPA Superfund site since 1983. And it has still been allowed to stay in business since that time!
Koppers has been a wood treatment plant in Gainesville since 1916. For many years they maintained lagoons full of creosote. This industrial coal tar product has been sinking deeper and closer to the Florida Aquifer. This will eventually pollute our drinking water.
The EPA could have started cleaning this up in the 1980s, but for some strange reason, Koppers has been allowed to stay in business. No one has had the backbone to close them down so a clean-up could begin. Solid majorities of the city commissioners have persisted in letting these poisons run their course rather than shut down a documented polluter…IN GAINESVILLE!
Koppers has also been cited for air-born pollutants, which have been scattered up to a ten mile radius around the plant, which is located behind the Big Lots store at Main St. and NW 39th Ave. Dioxin has been found in the dirt around the Stephen Foster neighborhood and beyond.
Craig Lowe says that only he has the experience to clean up this mess. I guess he has been waiting until he has been on the city commission for 7 years to feel confident enough to know what should have been done 27 years ago. No thanks, commissioner! Your time is up!
Don Marsh, candidate for Mayor
VOTE APRIL 13th!
Although Gainesville Mayoral candidates Craig Lowe and Monica Leadon Cooper disagree about biomass, they have this in common: they are the candidates of scarcity!
When Craig Lowe decided to give up the cheapest fuel source for biomass, he sentenced our city to a future of higher utility bills, more people moving out of Gainesville, more businesses struggling, fewer jobs, and less tax revenue. As utility bills climb higher, we will lose more homeowners, have more foreclosures, and more blight. It will be the beginning of the end. And if you think UF will save us from this, they are already looking at budget cuts and high tuition that will eventually cause students to go elsewhere…even online for an education.
Monica Cooper does not promise us anything better. She wants us to forget coal AND biomass and to limp along on solar energy and conservation and belt-tightening. Solar currently costs more than coal generated power and can only be had during the day. And it better be a sunny day. This will also lead to higher costs, fewer jobs, less tax revenue, and fewer reasons for anyone to stick around here.
I am Don Marsh, and I am the only candidate in this race that knows we need more generating capacity so we can have cheaper, more plentiful electricity, so that businesses will want to move here, and existing businesses can stay in business. Coal, although it will not last forever, is the only sensible fuel source until new technologies mature and become cheap enough to compete and produce power for the rest of the 21st century.
Remember: scarcity will cause prices to rise, and opportunities to shrink. Deciding to stop using coal is a decision to suffer lack. It is the error of politicians to distort the free market and create shortages with unnecessary, ideologically driven regulations. When Barack Obama said that he would bankrupt the coal industry, he set in motion false shortages as investments ran away from coal production. Then Florida stopped all coal plants and this lead to higher prices still. THIS MUST BE REVERSED. But first we must save the coal plant we have!
In the meantime, I will stop hiding Gainesville’s city taxes on your utility bill and cut the budget down to core services like police, fire, roads, and other basic infrastructure. I will get rid of the tiered pricing that punishes families. And I will stop the feed-in tariff that subsidizes solar panels on the homes of people who can afford them, while you are doing without!
Vote for me March 16 for sensible solutions and honest, transparent government.
