Election 2012 - candidates

Newspaper endorsements

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1255399.ece
http://www2.tbo.com/news/opinion/2012/oct/23/naopino1-our-ballot-choices-ar-541104/

UPDATE:  If you are curious about the amendments, I concur with the conclusions here: http://cltampa.com/tampa/no-no-eleven-times-no/Content?oid=3452072#.UJLLPmd1GSo

President

If you haven't made up your mind by now, maybe you should skip this one.

Senator


Bill Nelson's done a reasonable job as a centrist Senator since 2000.  He hasn't become a preening Blue Dog using his position as a means for self-promotion and self-aggrandizement.  Connie Mack IV brings nothing to the table other than his legacy admission to politics as son of another Florida Senator.   An easy choice, even if you don't factor in potential party control of the Senate. 

US House District 14


Kathy Castor is one of my favorite politicians, a Democrat who takes reasonably liberal positions instead of lukewarm ones.   I'm tired of having to vote for the lukewarm ones.  A campaign worker for her opponent, "EJ" Otero, came to my door and while I listened politely I tried to explain that he wasn't telling me anything that would make me switch, and wasn't telling me much of anything about Otero other than he's conservative and Latino. 

Sheriff

David Gee is running unopposed.  I'm skipping this vote because I'm opposed to unopposed races. 

Property Appraiser

Ronda Storms has long been an  embarrassment to Hillsborough County and to sentient life.  She has long flaunted her inexperience, lack of knowledge, homophobia, and power in public and private settings.  Yet East Hillsborough has elected her again and again because Jesus.  If you are not familiar with her work, there's plenty of examples in the local newspapers.  The conservative Tribune reluctantly knocks her "self-discipline", but the subtext speaks loudly and hilariously. The Times is more blunt: "Storms regularly belittled people outside her circle — from urban residents to gay residents. Her slash-and-burn style was a principal reason the commission was described as dysfunctional by other elected officials — and by commissioners themselves. And her demeaning approach would hardly instill a culture of teamwork". I suspect she will win because the name of her opponent, Bob Henriquez, is foreign sounding to those fine, salt of the earth eastern voters, but I will relish finally being able to vote against her.  

Supervisor of Elections

This is an office I've long thought should be a professional post and not an elected, partisan one.  Here's the chance to vote a non-politican in, or at least as close to that as we are going to get.   Craig Latimer is the obvious choice.  He runs the office now as chief of staff and is widely praised and endorsed for his job of turning the office around from the dark days of that self-promoting charlatan  Buddy Johnson.  Rich Glorioso,  a State Representative, is endorsed mostly by other party politicians, supports right-wing voter suppression efforts, and is one of those Florida Republican politicians who jumps from public office to office to office, complaining about government the whole time.  An easy choice here. 


County Commission District 6

Kevin Beckner is a first term incumbent who defeated the widely-hated Brian Blair.  Now that we've finally gotten rid of Blair, here comes Blair-endorsed Tea Party nut Margaret Iuculano, bringing a history of homophobia and personal tax problems.  Beckner's done a reasonable job, so this is an easy choice too.

Supreme Court and District Court Judges

There is a right-wing effort to oust these judges and replace them with far-right Rick Scott/wingnut acolytes.  Regardless of your political orientation, a political effort to sway the justice system in either direction should be opposed by voting to retain all of these judges and justices.

School Board

In the primary election, incumbent Carol Kurdell faced four challengers of varying degrees of competence and sanity, including a former teacher.  So who do the voters pick to face her in the run off?  Tea Party bigot Terry Kemple.  Good show, Hillsborough.  Kemple has gained attention for his anti-Muslim crusades and his claims that CAIR has terrorist ties.  The Times says: "He has distracted the district from its mission with bigoted campaigns against gays and Muslims, and he made the county a laughingstock in the process. He shows no genuine commitment to public education."  Couldn't have said it better myself.  The choice of Carol Kurdellis an obvious one. 

Soil and Water Conservation Board

This one is tough, because the newspapers didn't bother to endorse or cover these races this year and two of the candidates don't even have web pages.  I'm voting for Shane Holman over Sharon Collins because at least I can read about his stands on the issues and he is endorsed by the Sierra Club.  Judging from LinkedIn, Sharon Collins has experience, but she's also endorsed by numerous wingnut voting guides, and that makes me nervous.  The same thing with nursery owner Roy Gene Davis, who is in the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame and obvious has a lot of background in agriculture.  But I also dug up newspaper articles with him regurgitating the typical right-wing complaints about bureaucracy, regulation, federal "harassment", etc. No web page or stands on issues I can find, but lots of wingnut endorsements.  So I'm going with Joe Wendt's quixotic libertarian crusade to abolish the very board he's running for. 

My Picks for Tuesday's local primary

Every election I plan to dig into all of those down ticket races and make intelligent decisions about judges and school board posts, etc. Now that I am gifted with some free time on the eve of the election, here goes.

Times endorsements: http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1240701.ece
Tribune endorsements: http://www2.tbo.com/news/opinion/2012/jul/30/5/our-endorsements-ar-446525/

US Senator

Bill Nelson has been a decent enough Senator. Far too conservative for my tastes, but you need to be conservative in Florida, and he’s nowhere near as conservative as he could be. He could easily have become a preening Joe Lieberman Blue Dog type, but he didn’t, and for that alone he’s pretty much earned my vote. Regardless, I looked into his primary opponent, Glenn Burkett, anyway. He describes himself as a “Hybrid Democrat” willing to take ideas from either party. A nice idea, but it seems an empty one as he’s given no indication of what kind of ideas he would take or where he stands on most issues. His website doesn’t give much info about that, and he doesn’t appear to have held any public office. The throw the bums out strategy may get you lots of nods of agreement, but won’t get you many votes. I’d vote for him for something like state senate, though, so he might set his sights a bit lower.

Supervisor of Elections

According to both local papers, current Supervisor of Elections Office Chief of Staff Craig Latimer deserves a lot of the credit for rebuilding the office after the tenure of self-promoting narcissist Supervisor Buddy Johnson. It’s an office that shouldn’t be a political one in any case, an opinion that was definitely cemented in my mind after Jeb Bush inflicted that sower of human misery Johnson on our county.  Thomas Scott served ably on the city and county commission, or at least I don’t recall any particular scandals. But I’m going with Latimer because I don’t think a politician should be in that post.

13th Circuit Judge 

Mark Wolfe is an experienced judge whom both papers describe in flattering terms. Johnnie Byrd is a former Speaker of the state house who was the most divisive, polarizing, controversial, and scandal ridden figure in that office until the next guy the GOP installed. This one is a no brainer.

County Court

Both papers describe incumbents Ann Ober and Matt Lucas as able justices whose opponents offer no compelling reason to replace them. Ann Ober’s opponent also has a history of DUI arrests. The other Judge race features three non-incumbents who appear to all have quality resumes. Both papers endorse Frances Maria Perrone but neither one really puts together an open and shut case for her, so I’m undecided.

School Board

I’m not sure where to come down on the Susan Valdes/Eddy Calcines race. Susan Valdes has popped up in the news frequently during her three terms, but I’m not sure if she’s blameless or a drama queen. Calcines seems like a decent fellow but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference between them, policy wise. I don’t like this potentially burdensome guest speaker notification policy that Valdes is supporting recently but I’m not sure that minor issue is enough to justify booting out an experienced incumbent.

The other Board race on my ticket is a six-way, with five challengers against incumbent Carol Kurdell. First to cross off the list are Terry Kemple, a homophobic and Islamophobic Tea Party-type, and Carl Kosierowski, a former bus driver who calls himself Captain Carl. Robert McElheny is a truck dealer who promises to bring business solutions to the school board, which always spells trouble. Both papers describe Joe Jordan-Robinson as an activist, but in unflattering terms. There is an actual teacher (and former CIA agent), Michael Weston, in the race, so I decided to give his platform a closer look, and I’m impressed with what he has to say about testing, technology, the arts, and extracurricular activities, so I’m going to vote for him. Both papers endorse Kurdell and describe her in very flattering terms, so you probably couldn’t go wrong voting for her instead.