Having a political forum for a non-partisan office without allowing all qualified candidates an opportunity to participate is just plain wrong. All candidates should refuse to participate and just listen to Tracy Carroll’s straw man talk the room into tears. Allowing a non-candidate to speak on behalf of a candidate, who probably will avoid any forum where there is a possibility of unfiltered questions, is also wrong. So a legitimate candidate cannot participate but a non-candidate can? Who makes these rules?
Also this single shot theory, which actually deprives a voter of using both of his or her votes, is underhanded and conniving and don’t we have enough of that already on prominent display? If a person is actually promoting that form of voting, it should be proudly displayed in every campaign ad (“Vote for me and me alone . . .don’t use your second vote”). This is the strategy of a person who knows they are going to lose the election without some form of trickery.
Haven’t we been the victims of enough trickery?
Indian River Guardian 
Tracy Carroll has a lot to say while sitting on the dais at council meetings, but will probably be a no-show at candidate gatherings where she is not shielded by the mayor and Pilar Turner. How will her spokesman defend her attack on the Humanists,or her futile attempt to do away with the dog park? Most importantly how will he explain her odious short term rental practices? She can’t so expect her mouth piece to talk about everything but those topics. The brazen one is now in hiding.
Heran speaking in place of Carroll will be much like a puppeteer dispensing with his puppet. Carroll is a one-issue candidate, and this, for her, is a one issue campaign, which is why Heran can adequately speak for her.
The argument that Carroll’s re-election is critical for the sale of Vero Electric is lost on me. The City already has a signed contract with FPL. The determination of whether that contract can be executed is now in the hands of the City’s transactional attorneys, the Florida Municipal Power Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Florida Public Service Commission and perhaps the Florida Legislature. Those who suggest a new City Council could simply put $5 million on the table and walk away from this deal do not know what they are talking about, or they know better, and are trying to mislead the public in an effort to help Carroll get re-elected.
The only reason that single candidate voting is necessary is that the council is elected by at large voting even though the members supposedly represent a single district of the city. At large voting denies minorities of any kind the opportunity to be represented. This form of voting in inherently undemocratic and is a relic of the Jim Crow days. Even districts with low voter turnout are entitled to be represented by a council member who has their needs in mind as well as the overall needs of the city.
Susan, how do you conclude members of City Council are supposedly representing single districts, since the city is not divided into districts? Thank goodness Richard Winger and Jay Kramer do not govern as if they think of themselves as “islanders.” Those two gentlemen seem to take interest in the needs and concerns of the entire community, as they should.
There may very well be merit to electing Council members from single districts, and/or their party affiliation, but that is not the current polity of the City of Vero Beach.
Can you imagine a Presidential forum where one of the candidates decides not to show up and sends his/her “back-up” to the event instead? And even though the Republican Club has a right, I suppose, to just have Republican candidates at their club meeting, calling it a forum for non-partisan election is ridiculous. It would be like the Tea Party running a forum at the high school and using only certain questions and making rules that don’t make a lot of sense. Oh, wait, I think I’ve attended some of those forums.
The city council does not need Tracy Carroll to move ahead with theFP&L sale. We are too far down the road to turn back. Tracy is ,indeed , a one issue candidate, but she will stick with her one issue because every other issue is her” Waterloo” .No need to repeat them here ;every person in the city is aware of her sorry record. Her negatives far out weigh any good she may have achieved in the past. Just her treatment of concerned citizens is enough to remove her from office. A recent recall petition drive to remove her from office got over 800 signatures . This alone should tell her what voters are thinking ,and it is not good for Mrs Carroll. .