Alachua Voter Guide

On Monday evening (December 5) at the African American Accountability Alliance’s 2012 City Commission Candidate Forum, our community witnessed the clearest signal yet that the crack in the information wall that has been obscuring the Gainesville City Commission’s GRU’s biomass electric rate hike scheme has spread beyond the point at which the GRU-GREC-biomass-deal-at-any-cost backroom dealmakers can hope to contain it.

Prior to Monday’s 4As forum, Armando Grundy, one of three candidates for the District 1 City Commission seat, had carefully towed the pro-GRU-GREC-biomass-rate-hike line espoused by his mentor and political sponsor, current District 1 City Commissioner Scherwin Henry, who has voted in favor of the GRU-GREC-biomass deal at every opportunity and who is among the biomass-rate-hike’s most ardent supporters.

At every previous forum, Mr. Grundy had refused to stray even an inch from his mentor and sponsor’s pro-GRU-GREC position
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At previous forums, Mr. Grundy — as justification for his support for the GRU-GREC-biomass-rate-hike that will disproportionately hurt the residents of District 1 — has insisted that he understands the people of District 1. According to Mr. Grundy’s prior statements, the people of District 1 simply do not care about the biomass issue.

But at Monday night’s first District 1 forum, Mr. Grundy – faced with the undeniable fact that the citizens of District 1 have great common sense and overwhelming want to get out of the financially onerous GRU-GREC deal – Mr. Grundy finally, and definitively, stepped away from his mentor and sponsor Mr. Henry.

The abrupt change came after I pointed out, once again, that the GRU-GREC biomass plant has not been opposed by the other two District 1 candidates — not Mr. Grundy, a newcomer to District 1, who moved to District 1 after losing a previous election in which he attempted to become City Commissioner the city commissioner for District 3, and not Yvonne Hayes Hinson-Rawls, who lived in East Gainesville as a child and student and more recently retired to District 1 after a career in New York and Dade County. It was at that point that Mr. Grundy — facing a District 1 crowd with opinions distinctly different than those Mr. Grundy had represented to be their opinions – turned on his mentor and sponsor Mr. Henry.

As accurately reported in The Gainesville Sun:

“Washington also criticized his two opponents for not opposing the biomass plant, prompting Grundy to say he does indeed oppose it.”

It is too early to tell how Mr. Grundy’s split from Commissioner Henry on the biomass issue will play out in the final lap of the City Commission election season.

But it is clear that public outrage that has been boiling has continued to boil hotter ever since the April 6 unblackening of GRU-GREC financial details that the city commission had sanctioned being kept secret from the public until nearly 2050 continues to boil.

And it is clearthat pressure generated by that boiling has cracked the city commission’s carefully constructed two-and-a-half-year GRU-GREC biomass information wall of silence.

And it is clear, now that Mr. Grundy has abandoned his political sponsor and mentor on the biomass issue, that the crack has now spread to the point where there is nothing the GRU-GREC-biomass-deal-at-any-cost backroom dealmakers can do to stop the ill-conceived and irresponsibly negotiated biomass edifice from crumbling to the ground. When that will happen, and how, remain to be seen. I’ll keep you posted.

Too big to ignore

This blog has always been committed to local candidates and letting them get their message out for free. I have kept this space free of Senatorial and Gubernatorial and Presidential candidates because I felt like they got plenty of coverage already. But after going through two of my own campaigns in the last two years, I have had to come to terms with the fact that local politicians are a big part of our national problems because they promise to get grants for us so our buses will be “free”. This was particularly highlighted when newly elected Governor Rick Scott turned down “free” Obama stimulus money to build a bullet train because he said we could not afford to run it.

Indeed, government spending and government debt issues are quite divisive. Many Americans are concerned while others think we can ignore it and just keep printing the money. That is pretty much the divide, whether you understand it or not.

We have all lived with government debt all of our lives. Politicians keep telling us it is manageable and that it is like any one of our credit cards. And that’s a great way to make the sale, because most Americans are deep in debt and feel uneasy and hypocritical about demanding that the government be more responsible than they are themselves. So, when the light begins to dawn, and you realize how dangerously high the debt has become, and you dare to SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT, you get called a lot of nasty names by your neighbors and coworkers. They will avoid the real issue at all costs by calling you a racist, a hater, a homophobe, an imbecile and an inbred redneck. Then, if you organize and begin to protest, you will be called a TERRORIST, and a threat to all that is good and holy.

So, if you care about the growth of government and government spending, you had better pay attention to your local elections. And the first one will be the Gainesville City elections in January. Yes, it should coincide with the primary date, which means more people will be showing up at the polls than usual. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, city elections usually garner a whopping 12% turnout; sometimes more, sometimes less. But, due to the Republican Presidential Primary, there should be a LOT more Republicans voting than usual, and some of those people (certainly not all) will be avidly looking to punish big spenders. Unfortunately, there will be no incumbents to fire, so voters will have to actually do some homework. I hope you will continue to follow this blog as that time draws near.

I am excited to post that I am running for Alachua County Commission seat 3 which Paula Delaney currently occupies. This is so important to me that I filed in February but laid low while we tried to get Rob Zeller and Todd Chase elected to the Gainesville City Commission.
I will say that I am not your typical hand picked Alachua County Politician in that I am not part of the local political elite. I am just a regular guy that is willing to step up to redirect our Countys vision and bring fiscal responsibility and common sense principles into our government. I believe that not ever having held a political office is my advantage. I can more relate to the 95% of our citizens that live throughout the county that find it more and more challanging to make ends meet.
I will make Roads and Public Safety the first items addressed with each budget.
I will work with businesses in our county to identify and eliminate those regulations which make it difficult to open new businesses or that keep new businesses out. We need to recognize that Business growth is essential to all aspects of our lives as taxpayers and consumers and is the lifeblood of our communities.
I would also represent all the munincipalities equally in our county and recognize that any money spent belongs to the entire county and not just a small core group.
I am a registered Republican and am on the Alachua County Executive Committee. I am also a member of our local Tea Party which is made up of a very good cross section of all political parties in the county that are concerned with the current direction of the BOCC.
As I know that the BOCC should not make any decisions without the input of our citizens I would welcome your input and ideas on how to make our quality of life truly better by being more efficient with taxpayers money. As individuals we have had to learn to live within our means and our representative government should reflect the same idea. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I would appreciate the support as I move foward with my campaign. For more info you can contact me at 352-356-VOTE or through my website www.voteforwalt.com

Good day friends and readers…. It is now official. I am once again running for Alachua County School Board. I have many concerns about our students education and many related budget issues. Please peruse my new website at www.JodiWood.info to get further information about this candidacy. Jodi

As many of you know I encountered several assaults upon my family in my recent school board campaign. I thought this would be over when the campaign was done. I was wrong. Recently my 1st grade daughter was horribly assaulted on several occasions at Rawlings Elementary School. The school board has been very uncooperative about giving us a reasonable transfer to another school for her own safety. After much conflict, a notable employee of SBAC informed me that we were given a hard time due to my controversial campaign. What? Is the administration of our public schools this corrupt that they will put my daughter’s safety behind political disagreements? I also wonder why the local media does not wish to cover an issue of two 6 year old girls being beat and molested multiple times in an elementary school auditorium.

My name is Brian Bunch, and I am Running for Alachua Soil and Water Conservation District Seat 4.  I would like to tell you about my self a little bit.

I was born and raised in Miami, Florida, in 1984, moved to Gainesville in 2002 to attend Santa Fe College. In December 2010 I will graduate with my Associates Degree in Business Management and will hold ten Vocational Certificates, all in business related fields.

I come from a family of small business owners. Both of my parents, a brother-in-law, and several other family members own a variety of small business in South Florida and New York. I started my own business in 2005 developing websites and graphic design services for other small businesses. In 2009,I started to branch into web and graphic design work for political campaigns, this new arena helped peak and develop my interest in the political process.

At Santa Fe College, I was involved in several student organizations and Student Government. Founded the Santa Fe College chapter of Phi Beta Lambda-Future Business Leaders of America, and served in several state and national leadership roles within that organization.

Reasons I am  running:

• I feels that soil and water conservation is vital to improving local government;
• The community will benefit from his business experience and mentality, and;
• A new voice will be able to change the business as usual attitude within local government.

For More info, please visit my website @ www.briancbunch.com Please note, that my platform will be added by Mid Week! Remember to vote for BRIAN BUNCH for Soil and Water Seat 4 this November.

Voter turnout was abysmal yesterday. It was only 22% in school board and the judge’s contest. But this election was not without its points of interest. If you compare the turnout in Republican primaries versus Democrat primaries, Republicans ran about a 30% turnout, while Democrats ran 24%. This is a bad omen for Democrats in November if they are less motivated than Republicans to show up.

As for as my prognosticating went, I didn’t do badly. I said it might be a Pinkoson blowout, but instead it was just a solid win over Jack Donovan, 53.7%-46.3%. I think the spread would have been bigger with a better turnout. I correctly called a Griffin/Nesbit runoff in the District 1 School Board race, a Gunnar Paulson first round knock out in District 3, and I thought Carol Oyenarte might do the same, but she will be in a November runoff with Jancie Vinson.

In other local contests, Corrine Brown devoured her primary challenger for the 3rd District seat in Congress by an 80-20 margin. She will be facing Republican primary winner Mike Yost and Independent candidate Terry Martin-Back. Yost took down Dean Black and Chris Nwasike in a 46-35-19 finish yesterday. In the 6th Congressional District Republican primary, Cliff Stearns easily won over Don Browning, 71-29.

In State House 11 Republican Primary, Elizabeth Porter blew out the rest of the 4 person field with 73% of the vote. And in State House 22, Keith Perry prevailed over Remzey Samarrai and John Deakins 44-28-28. Only 16 votes separated Samarrai from Deakins, who finished last.

Stay tuned as I revamp the site for November elections, including ballot initiatives!

It is Election Day, and I heard the Supervisor of Elections on the radio. She was giving the upbeat report that she was expecting voter turnout to be up to 30%.

I have already been to the gym and to my polling place to vote. Then I walked my dog and met a neighbor who told me his mother is totally turned of to politics because of the negative ads. For the first time, she is not voting.

I truly despair of my country when I hear that a member of “The Greatest Generation” has thrown in the towel and has decided to let a tiny minority of her neighbors choose for her. This is exactly what the political pros hope for: that only ten of us will show up, so they will have to only buy six of us…

It has been 19 months since I filed to run for school board. So long I have actually had to update the family photo a couple of times. Most recently I updated to add our 5th child into the photo. Now my wife has informed me that if this campaign was a few months longer that we would have to update the photo again for a 6th child. Whatever the results of Tuesday’s election, this has been a fruitful campaign.
Jodi