Marden: The road we are on
Letter to the editor
We may have just hit smooth fresh pavement here in America with the election of Donald Trump, but Alachua County’s political roads are still full of potholes. Reflecting on the Tuesday totals, there is a theme: the Democrat Party went woke and went broke.
Should local Democrats in charge continue along this road, they, too, will eventually be kicked to the curb. Just look at the 4As’ endorsements of Single-Member Districts and Republicans, rather than long-standing incumbent Democrats.
87% (41,448) of our 47,428 registered Republicans turned out for this election. A historic number. Democrats turned out 84% (64,416) of their 76,525 registered voters. Despite the national Democrat picture, local party bosses are more insulated, with a current 1.6:1 voter registration (down from 2:1) advantage. But for how long?
The previous turn-out record was 75% in 2020, compared to this year’s 84%. Although only 41,448 Republicans voted, Republicans in key races received a significant number of non-Republican votes. Did those votes come from crossover Democrats or NPAs? The simple answer is both.
How about in the Trump v. Harris race? Donald Trump received 50,972 votes in 2020 but increased to 52,873 this time. Both totals were higher than he received in 2016 (46,834) when he beat Hillary Clinton. Mind you, there are 27,097 fewer registered voters in Alachua County now than there were in 2020: 163,369 in 2024 versus 190,451 in 2020. So Trump pulled 6,039 more votes than 2016 with 27,000 fewer voters in the mix.
In our Sheriff’s race, Emery Gainey (R) and Chad Scott (D) received 62,342 and 62,757 votes, respectively. Pamela Marshall-Koons (I) received 8,513. Gainey received a staggering 20,894 non-Republican votes.
Despite his win, Sheriff Chad Scott will be walking into a stack of resignations, from what I hear. If that is the case, what will crime look like in the streets? What domino effects will that have? Our School Board burns through Superintendents the way Minneapolis burned in the summer of 2020.
More potholes, more crime, more fatherless homes, more homelessness, more trash in the streets. There will be no accountability if Scott lacks the manpower to enforce the law. When we hear about liberalism being a cancer, this is it what it looks like: Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, et al. (By the way, Los Angeles’s progressive District Attorney George Gascón was ousted by voters on November 5.)
In his book “Road To Serfdom,” F.A. Hayek warns of the dangers of tyranny stemming from government controlled central planning. This is what we have in Alachua County. Democrats are in charge of the County Commission, School Board, and City of Gainesville. None of those entities are run well, by any objective measure. The County and School Board budgets alone amount to over a billiong dollars – for what amounts to mediocre governance. This is not healthy for our greater community, and it hurts the marginalized communities the most – the exact communities the liberal elites espouse affinity for. Really?
We cannot have the same people creating the disease and the cure in the same lab. This is what Robert Kennedy Jr. is warning about with Big Pharma and Big Ag.
John Adams wrote to John Taylor, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Hence why America is a Constitutional Republic – to guard against the problems of democracy.
We are on a rocky road here in Alachua County, but given the national picture we saw Tuesday, there is hope Alachua County will eventually follow suit as we look over the horizon. Democracy, Socialism, and Marxist schemes are dead-end roads. They eventually run out of other people’s money. We are at a fork in this road now. Turn right, Alachua County, and get off this rocky road once and for all.
Tim Marden, Chairman of the Republican Party of Alachua County
The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Assertions of facts in letters are similarly the responsibility of the author. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.
“there are 27,097 fewer registered voters in Alachua County now than there were in 2020”
I’m shocked, if that is true.
It is true, where do you think the voters went? Begs the question doesn’t it. Voter rolls had been increasing the previous 12 years.
It is a function of voter role maintenance. 2020 was the highest turnout. Then guess what! What? Over the next 4 years the biggest driver of this is likely UF and SF graduates move out of Alachua and they are purged from the roles. Alachua has a lot of churn.
The issue is you have a narrative you want to believe and push – “Rep are growing, and the woke Dems are dying a slow death in Alachua County”, and then you go in search of statistics to back yourself up.
Your damn lies (statistics) aren’t wrong per se, but you are cherry picking and not exploring the entire picture.
Yes, turnout when look at as a function of votes cast/active voters increased.
At the same time, the number of raw votes cast decreased. Logic would dictate for both of those to be true, the numerator would have to go down from 2020 – 2024.
Republican raw votes cast for Trump increased about 2000 votes from 2020 – 2024.
Democrat raw votes cast for Biden then Harris decreased about 8000 votes.
This is less about the incredible job you are doing likely more about the decrease in turnout among unreliable voters.
Chris, I not tooting my own horn at all. I am not pointing to anything specific but simply stating the facts. There was no measurable decrease in voter roles for 12 years at least. Now 27,000 since Biden’s election. That’s curious if one is being honest.
Students leave all the time. That should be a recurring maintenance item.
There has also been an increase of 8500 residents alone and a drop in ratio of voters to population to. 67 v 57 the last 10 years.
If decreasing voter rolls equate to decreasing population, then one could argue the policies of the BoCC ran off a sizeable amount of its citizens over the last four years.
This adds new meaning to “net zero goals”.
Tony, rolls went down 27,000 while population rose by 8500.
I know of several registered voters who moved to surrounding counties to escape the liberalism that’s rampant in Alachua County.
Pure partisan crap from the John Birch officer who took over the party of Lincoln in our county (the JBS now thinks the civil war was Lincoln’s fault, so this party has gone rotten in more ways than in being a cult of a rapist, felon, and traitor).
Every major party across the developed world, including Japan, lost elections after the pandemic, and now ours. Despite the fact that Biden did not cause the high inflation – the pandemic did, which is why the entire developed world suffered it and these elections – and brought us around to low inflation – now 2.21% and the world’s strongest economy, he was blamed for it, and that’s why he lost. It’s not some great realignment (51% of the national vote) our John Birch Society leader hopes it is.
The real sign of delusion by this guy is here:
“In his book “Road To Serfdom,” F.A. Hayek warns of the dangers of tyranny stemming from government controlled central planning. This is what we have in Alachua County. …”
Well yeah, but that’s the central planners in Tallahassee that this idiot cheers on, not the local voters who elect commissioners in free elections. They are the exact opposite of the “central planners” he and his party keep attacking us with.
Someone buy this guy a clue. He’s too dumb to fish, too blind to chew gum.
When FP&L customers have more recourse than 40 percent of GRU customers, and local elected city officials say, “too bad,” you think it is tyranny when the state steps in?
FP&L customers have no say in how they spend their profits – in fact, they spent some of it in 2018 meddling in our local election with illegal dark money and got away with it.
By the way, Rep Hinson called for an amendment to the bill which took over GRU that would have allowed non-G’ville citizens to opt out. It failed on a party line vote.
If it were so easy to leave to join a separate utility, why hasn’t that been offered by the city-managed GRU years ago? I mean, my dad had no say when GRU took over his area of unincorporated SW Alachua County from Clay when I was a child. Why was that?
FP&L customers had more recourse in regards to rate increases. That is, FP&L’s rate increases must be approved by the FL PSC. If FP&L’s customers have an issue, they can lodge a complaint with the FL PSC. The city of Gainesville, however, could increase rates without regulatory oversight. If those outside the city had an issue with it, they had no recourse.
ACPS, utility companies trade off territories without approval of customers and that has happened to me, going from Clay to GRU where I am. Nothing against Clay, who I work with as a builder to connect new houses and who was our long term provider when I managed a farm near Hague, but GRU is much better as far as service and not going out all the time.
As to oversight by the PSC, yes, and the state legislature has discussed changing the law fairly recently to allow it the same oversight on municipal rates as it does over investor owned utilities. I doubt there would be serious opposition to changing that, as long as they stuck to rates and not use of profits, which go to the autonomy of both investor and public utilities.
IF – a big IF – the state saw such a terrible situation with GRU, which had excellent credit ratings superior to FPL and Duke, they had other options for oversight besides taking away control of it from it’s owners, who are the citizens of Gainesville. Given that Perry – who received $100k in illegal campaign money from FPL back in 2018 – and Clemons, neither one of whom has ever gotten a majority vote in Gainesville, have been trying to do this for years, and that FPL has taken over some municipal utilities in Florida and have tried to take over some they couldn’t get to, this smells of corruption and power politics, not principled debate.
By the way, FPL bought out Gulf Power in the panhandle and raised rates astronomically. Remember, Keith Perry, the state senator from Marion/Levy County and the state GOP, took $100k in dark money from FPL in 2018. You think they did that with no strings attached?
“January was the first month former Gulf Power customers in the Panhandle made payments to FPL after the companies merged last year. It also was the first month a rate increase took hold for FPL customers.
As reported by the Daily News’ Sierra Rains on Feb. 4, Brewster, who has lived in DeFuniak Springs for four years, said her bill went from $184 in December to $291 in January. Her February bill is projected to be $394.
“… That’s going to be half of my (Social Security) check. I’ll be able to pay electric and rent and that’s it,” she said. “I only turn on the breaker to get hot water so I can take a shower and then that’s it.”
The Florida Public Service Commission in October unanimously approved a four-year rate settlement allowing FPL to raise rates in 2022 to generate an additional $692 million in revenue, followed by increases in 2023 that will another generate $560 million….
Brewster is among thousands voicing their concerns on social media. Angel Minnis of Crestview created the Facebook group “COOP Initiative of Northwest Florida.” The group had almost 400 members last week, some posting screenshots of their bills topping out at $1,000.
Minnis said her bill went up almost $250 to $797. Minnis compared a previous Gulf Power bill to her current FPL bill and observed a 36% difference in base rate charges including fuel costs.
“How are people paying this? It’s insane,” Minnis said. “… It’s heartbreaking.””
Regulatory capture, rising fuel costs, and/or FP&L had to make infrastructure improvements to integrate Gulf Power customers to their system.
Yet, FP&L Customers *still* had recourse, even when faced with regulatory capture: (according to CBS News) “The Florida Supreme Court said state regulators did not adequately justify approval of a settlement that increased base electric rates for Florida Power & Light and ordered a new explanation.
Justices, in a 4-2 opinion, sent a battle about the settlement back to the Florida Public Service Commission, saying regulators in a 2021 decision did not meet a legal requirement of showing why the agreement “is in the public interest and results in rates that are fair, just and reasonable.'”
Now, back to the 40 percent of GRU customers who have zero recourse
Yes, so FPL and “regulators” say. Meanwhile, customers are being gouged.
See my post above please.
All lies and baloney
More nonsense from jazz
🥱…
You know nothing about America. And less about the wood burner
Jazz: take your booster & wear your mask…
you are going to find out that you were fooled by the
Big lie C19 pandemic…
the WHO is not gonna get any funding from Trump and your fascist commi one world totalitarian gov shangrila ain’t gonna get its vax passports!
It’s a great day for America!🇺🇸
Thanks Sherman, got my booster Friday and will definitely wear a mask on a plane trip I’m taking next Friday. Maybe you should check the scoreboard again.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status
and
“…A total of seven studies with 21,618,297 COVID-19 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The odds ratio (OR) for mortality among unvaccinated patients compared to vaccinated patients was 2.46 (95% CI: 1.71-3.53), indicating that unvaccinated patients were 2.46 times more likely to die from COVID-19….”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10492612/
They say ignorance is bliss and so you must be extremely happy, especially now that your rapist traitor candidate won and will confirm for you all the stupid stuff you belief in, much of it which he probably told you, AND YOU BELIEVED HIM!
Unbelievable.
Who’s going to tell him ^^?
I just did tell Sherman, you dunce.
Covid didn’t cause the Green New Scam, incompetent foreign excursions, $1.5 trillion in new federal regulations modeled after California, men in women’s sports, child sex change operations, etc.
ACLUSPLCDNC 🤡👺👿👹💩
But Biden and Harris were so quick to blame inflation on Donald Trump as were you. Now it’s the pandemic fault inflation went through the roof under Biden. And again with the Trump Derangement Syndrome that you suffer from. They are offering a 4 year cruise around the world if you can not stand living in a free society and suffer to much from your Anxiety of Conservatism. Please seek help. You’re quick to throw racist name calling but in truth America saw huge percentages of black and latino voters vote for Republics this year. They are seeing through your party’s oppressive ways. Can you believe that Harris paid Oprah a million dollars to say “I support Harris” till the money runs out.
Gee Bear, I thought I’d just deny he won and try to overthrow the government, but Harris and Biden actually have principles and patriotism and won’t go along with it.
But thanks for the advice. If I decide to support a scumbag felon who all Americans need to be ashamed of in the next election, I know who to ask how to surrender my decency and self respect so I can swallow all the spit you had to.
I have a Great Idea for our local worshiper of the moldy corpse of Brother John Birch: secede.
Why don’t you quit complaining how Alachua County is run and RUN YOUR OWN COUNTY? Secede as Spring County!
I think you know the major instigator of the Springs County movement. I am sure the new county will hire great smart leader YOU as county manager and pay you $300,000 per year to show the woke libs in Alachua County how to run a conservative utopia.
Quit complaining and JUST DO IT. As Soon As Possible.
Buh Bye.
Here’s an idea, I’ll leave the county as soon as you leave the country. I’m sure you’ll be hating life for the next 4 years.
Don’t be like those other liberal hypocrites who said they would leave if Trump won his 1st term.
Another Trumpster acting like they are the model for how to act after losing an election.
Dude, you have no self respect or decency and fail the simple test most humans figure out by their teen years: how to tell a really obvious con man and liar.
Lol jazzman, the real con men or persons was Harris and the democratic party. How they tricked the leftists into electing a dementia patient into office and telling you not to believe you’re lying eyes and ears for 4 years. The border crisis that could be fixed with a stroke of a pen. Blame that on Republicans. Just like they did with FEMA and hurricane relief. Everyone except Trump supporters get assistance. Biden/Harris the team of unity… Right they really showed they cared.
Last I checked, the 47th President of the United States of America will be Donald J. Trump. I’ll bet you’re one of those closet ‘View’ watchers. I hear they’re not very happy either. Maybe you, Idea Man & them can get together and console each other.
I’d also bet you more than likely have a large anus or great sucking ability too. Probably both from most the comments you’ve posted.
Try to have a good week.
It’s only two days until Hump Day/Trump Day.
Trump day! Yeah yeah‼️‼️🤪
How cute.
Do you have a special dance and song Sherman.
Yes, instead of the hump, we call it the Trump‼️🤪🕺
I don’t think this board is intended for your posting of private fantasies This may work, but hey, if you ever control yourself enough to come up with an intelligent position, try again. Can’t help you with your man problem.
Sounds more like you’re the one with issues.
Maybe you can go to one of those prestigious universities up in the Northeast; I hear they have ‘special spaces’ for people like yourself who are beside themselves with Harris losing the election.
Tea, cocoa, and self-care.
A Legos station.
Coloring and mindfulness exercises.
Milk and cookies.
On a more positive note, it’s only 4 more years until the next election. Have fun!
The Dem con party paying millions to fat women to sing one song and bussing in thousands thinking beonce was gonna sing
Or better yet take over the county and turn it red.
We’ll have wait to see if there’s a mass exodus of Sheriff’s Department personnel and a spike in the crime rates, but if the past under Clovis is an indication, and Scott’s cut from the same cloth, it’s bound to happen.
Just remember – 64,416 people voted not for Scott; they against Gainey simply because he had been appointed by DeSantis to replace Clovis.
One other thing, they also voted to increase the bribes, (I mean taxes), needed to keep and hire deputies and other staff, as well as the chance there will be more leniency towards criminal behaviors.
They voted for it – I didn’t.
Well said.
Blah blah blah, didn’t you vote to raise taxes?
Take your high horse and ride on.
Also, you can not say Gainey received that many non rep votes. He received some, but no one knows exactly how many. Especially with the precision you imply.
Now, tell us again about the time you voted to raise taxes?
Jazz: you got TDS bad….
orange man was elected by the people….
The people have spoken!
I’m getting tired of winning!
Move to Gaza and take your fascist commie BS there to
Helps them…
Bringing plenty of face diapers!
It’s a great day for America 🇺🇸‼️
Buh bye!🤣
I’m shocked, shocked to find I agree with Sherman.
It IS a great day for America. Our new President has established a new norm for how truthful words need to be.
I have adopted his example for myself. Accordingly, I can truthfully say:
I love Donald Trump.
I love Ron DeSantis.
I love Project 2025.
Sherman is one of the most attractive good looking smart intelligent talented nice people to ever exist on Planet Earth.
Sherman, the people spoke in 2020 too but your large mouth bass hole of a candidate refused to hear and tried to overthrow the government. Maybe you were drunk or something if you don’t know this.
All you have to do is take the number of Republicans who voted and subtract those from the total number of votes Gainey got. Mathing is not hard.
The fault in your “math” is the assumption that Gainey got all 100% of the Republican vote. This just sloppy thinking and embarrassing for you.
Yes but if Gainey got less votes from Republicans it supports the points I was making of defection among the democrats because even more votes had to come from them or the NPAs.
For you apparently. You’re here celebrating the 2nd popular vote republicans have won for president since 1992 (that’s 32 years ago Hawkins) and at 51% as if it was a new 1000 year Reich.
And the trillions the democrats have run up in deficits. Deal with it
“Change in Total U.S. Debt by President
Below is a table of debt by U.S. presidents in the 20th and 21st centuries.:
Trump 33.61% $6,700,491,178,561.60
Biden 16.7% $4,738,415,474,674.48
Updated November 05, 2024”
https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225
Johnny boy, me, vote to raise my taxes?
I’m not a liberal idiot.
So, Alachua County voters were against Gainey (hands down the clearly more qualified, and for sure a better sheriff) because of his party affiliation or because the governor appointed him? Or because the D candidate (“Captain” Dumb) was part of the clown Clovis sheriffhood? Time will quickly reveal the mistake of all that bad thinking.
Dummy’s of Alachua County voted for Clovis Jr
This is from the Newberry City Commissioner who raised taxes this year. The At-Large Districts, GRU, and One-Mill initiatives passed by over 70%; it appears there were many crossover votes on those. And despite Tim’s single-member district fiasco, the Democratic candidates walloped their GOP opponents.
Usually happens when the number of one constituency outnumbers the other by almost 3 : 1.
If you don’t believe that, take a look at the last Florida Governor’s results.
Are you making numbers up? 3 : 1? From the editorial: 87% (41,448) of our 47,428 registered Republicans turned out for this election—a historic number. Democrats turned out 84% (64,416) of their 76,525 registered voters.
It’s less than 2:1. For ballot initiatives to win by over 70%, it wasn’t just Democrats who voted for them.
Thanks for the correction. National pollsters did say there was a shift in political party numbers. I guess some people finally educated themselves about the proposed destructive liberal policies.
On a state level, I’m guessing that 60% protection level for adding Constitutional Amendments was just as telling.
Wait, you mean the election was fair, no fraud, no steal to stop???
So we know this because your side won for a change?
🤔…🥱.
I don’t recall ever saying an election was stolen. Seems the right party won the governorship this last cycle. The time before that as well, oh, before that one too.
I know you’re still upset about your buttboy Gillum losing his pants in South Florida, but are you still sore about the Howard Bishop thing?
You really should get over that. I’m sure your boy would like that not to be the conversation over Thanksgiving.
Maybe you were in a come You voted, but your candidate for president said that election wasa stolen and had your fellow cult members – that would actually be the entire Republican party including the Governor, Kat, etc – claiming to believe that and applauding the assault on the capital to flip the government. Yeah, you don’t remember that.
And please leave me out of your sex fantasies. You’re an embarrassment to the board and even your fellow cult members don’t want to hear that.
Well, maybe they do.
🤣… 🥱.
Run along little boy, (or are you gender neutral?), even I can hear Ward ringing your dinner bell.
You really should do something about your anger issues. For your information, I didn’t keep your boy from attending the magnet at Howard Bishop.
It’s “stay hungry,” not “stay angry.”
Clearly you’re not angry, posting attacks daily on anything said or done by local elected leaders, including benign proclamations.
You are however, like your leader, someone without class or dignity who thinks personal attacks of the lowest level, including imagining sexual liaisons, will win arguments and then escalating from there to attacking relatives who you know absolutely nothing of.
Yeah, I’ll take advice on losing elections from you, but “staying hungry” doesn’t mean eating even more BS from the pathetic creep you follow including the universal denial of reality your entire party swallowed and still believes about the last election which you claim you don’t remember.
🥱 Angry? More frustrated and disappointed in their decisions that you, and many others, continue to support and defend by electing them.
It’s easily explained though – stupid is as stupid does.
I believe I alluded to your anger possibly being attributed to your relative not being accepted by the Howard Bishop magnet program. I recall your having the initial resentment directed at people who may have been accepted some time ago.
Now run along before you have a serious meltdown.
The dems stole that 2020 election…they couldn’t pull that BS again.,,Trump is president…
The people have spoken.
It’s a great day for America!🇺🇸
Great reset is in the crapper!
There you go! Knew the cultists couldn’t keep up the pretense of normal and sane voters for long.
Pathetic
Trump Derangement symptoms again. You just can’t come to terms the Trump Train mowed the Democrats and Progressives over. Consider the 4 year cruise that is being offered. You can wear your face diaper every day on board and no one will think you are weird.
🤣
Even though millions paid to fat women and crooks like cardi
You wrote “The previous turn-out record was 75% in 2020, compared to this year’s 84%. ”
Yet, there were 6000 less votes cast in Alachua from 2020 to 2024.
Maybe you are trying to mislead the public or are just not that smart.?
Go look at the numbers
Ugh. Gag me with a spoon.
Fun fact: With the high R turnout, they voted overwhelmingly to return to the At Large District voting model for county commission races. Its thanks to them that instead of the expected 60% support for ALD, every single precinct in the county – even the heavily R precincts – went super majority to reject Single Member Districts. Thank you Republicans of Alachua County! (side note: demonstrable proof that the 4As and Marden’s REC had very little influence)
Just a failure on our part to communicate properly on that issue. But the judge already threw out the County challenge so. SMDs still exist. The vote total speaks to the confusion in my opinion which actually speaks to why the challenge was thrown out too.
Thanks for having the guts to use your real name here.
What is the estimate of non-votes on the SMD issue? I didn’t vote on it because the court is going to throw it out anyway.
Don’t know if I would make that admission in public.
Thanks for admitting you don’t GAF about votes but just winning Tim Birch. Next time cut the “realignment” crap from the beginning and ask for more help from Tallahassee.
You’re bragging about regressive at-large districting?
🤪🤡🤣
Another fun fact – you’re just as botched up as ever.
Don’t you have something else to screw up somewhere? Try not to filter future charter amendment proposals that you personally don’t like. That’s not your purpose.
Susan: you’re an ass..that at large wording and the GRU wording was so deceptive & confusing …you guys are such slime…you know what you did…
The courts will get it right.
2024 was about common sense vs. paid experts; citizen journalism vs. propaganda; inclusion vs. division.
Normally college towns are leading the way in America. But these days they’re trailing and waking up too late.
ACLUSPLCDNC 👹🤡👺👿💩
Scott was Clovis Watson’s lapdog. The stack of resignations will reflect that fact and ASO will again be selective enforcement and DEI unqualified employees. Strange that the Democrats don’t understand that the folks they are electing ARE the problem.
The woke left of Alchua Co. is on a suicidal path. They hate the good, the beautiful, and the true. This is evident by what social causes they champion: homeless drug addicts and uncontrolled crime.
It is not due to failed ideology, or misguided values, or bad policy decisions (although they have all of this).
It is Sorathic evil–
“Indeed, someone in the grip of Sorathic evil might plot and scheme, expend time, money and resources – and maybe even take risks to his own health and safety – in order to inflict harm on others.”
Further reading: https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-sorathic-evil-is-and-must-be-end.html?m=1
O.C enjoy your trip back to Middle earth where you belong.
“Indeed, someone in the grip of Sorathic evil might plot and scheme, expend time, money and resources in order to inflict harm on others.”
This is a GOOD thing. Our new Great MAGA President Donald J. Trump will plot and scheme, expend time, money and resources in order to go after the Lefties on his Enemies List. Go Donald! Trash the Libs! Be Evil!
Chad Scott should not even be law enforcement. Obviously people did not do their homework on him. So when deputies are quitting and the department is short staffed and crime comes up remember you people voted for this. As far as the county commissioners most the county is unhappy with them, yet you guys keep voting the same ones in. So when crime goes up and you’re not happy with the commissioners remember Alachua county you guys did this to yourselves.
You complain that voters keep voting for the same ole candidates. Voters can only vote for a candidate on the ballot. What we have here is a serious lack of choices among candidates. We need better/different choices on the ballot.
One reason is the lousy “leadership”(sic) of the local Republican Party. For years they whine about wanting single member districts, get Clemons to for a bill, use dark money so Social Justice PAC can put out misleading mudslinging flyers, and this election has SMDs. And Little Timmy BLEW IT.
Not ONE Republican in Alachua County had the balls to run against Chestnut(D) in a SMD election. Buncha chicken eunuchs led by Little Timmy.