COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
Florida Power & Light External Affairs Manager, Amy Brunjes, was the honored guest and speaker at a pro-FPL, pro-Tracy Carroll luncheon and pep rally held at the Heritage Center today. A crowd of just over 30 people gathered to hear Brunjes make her now familiar pitch for retaining the current City Council.
The Tea Party has made no secret of its support of the sale of Vero Electric. By arranging the event less than two weeks in advance of the Nov. 5 Vero Beach City Council election, the group gave Bunjes yet another opportunity to deliver her veiled push for Carroll’s re-election.
FPL claims the sale could unravel if the current three-person majority of Tracy Carroll, Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner, is not kept in office. FPL’s spokespersons and their operatives dismiss Richard Winger’s support of the sale, just as they discount the commitment of the remaining candidates, Amelia Graves, Brian Heady and Joseph Guffanti, to honor the binding agreement between the City and FPL. It is as if FPL is accusing all four of these candidates of lying about their intentions. Maybe it takes one to know one.
Those concerned about quality of life issues, such as preventing daily and weekly rentals in residential neighborhoods, maintaining popular services such as recreation programs for children and adults and retaining exceptional Police protection, counter FPL’s fears by pointing to the City’s signed, binding sales contract with the state’s largest investor-owned utility.
FPL isn’t taking any chances. In addition to sending Brunjes on the road to make its case, the utility giant has provided 99 percent of the funds for a political action group promoting Carroll’s re-election.
Indian River Guardian 
Of the 30 people attending this Tracy Carroll rally I wonder how many of the thirty actually can vote in the City Elections. I might guess….maybe five.
BTW, if the Tea Party claims over three thousand members or acquired e-mail addresses and only thirty people attended their “free lunch” – FPL rally that doesn’t bode well for the Tea Party, does it?
The fact that only 30 Tea Party people show up for a “free lunch” is a good sign that maybe the political movement is in its last grasps of life.
Charlie Wilson took great exception recently to my having characterized the far, far right as “wackos,” at least in the political sense. Senator John McCain, a former Republican Party standard-bearer, called them “wacko birds.”
I think what allot of people conveniently forget is most of the Tea Party people work for a living, so taking time off during a workday is not a convenience they can afford as some of the other groups that may show up in droves.
Pretty sad when Tracy Carroll must rely on outsider Amy Brunjes for election help. i guess Vero’s citizens are aware of Tracy Carroll flaunting weekly /daily rental laws. After two violation citations she has the nerve to challenge the established interpretation of the ordinance banning these rentals. Of course, unlike the rest of us, the only laws she is bound to adhere to are the ones that she agrees with. After all, she is Tracy Carroll councilwoman and if she wants to rent by the week or the day who are we to interfere.? ARROGANCE, GREED AND lets add a little religious BIGOTRY to her horrible public record.
Well, then, the local leaders of the Tea Party must have also forgotten that most of the Tea Party people, as you say, “work for a living.” They did, after all, plan the event for noon on a workday.
You may be remembering the throngs of working class people who turned out in the spring of 2008 to protest excessive government, especially as it was expressed in the huge bailout of the nation’s financial institutions, and Wall Street gamblers. That initial movement has been co-opted by the Koch brothers and other Libertarian extremists, people Senator John McCain called “wacko birds.”
I’m retired. I have a life (maybe not the most exciting). Wouldn’t put myself through the ordeal of listening to another FPL pitch even for a free meal.
Heck, I met with more folks than that today that were not planning on voting and convinced them to vote for Amelia Graves. Did anyone watch “The Simpsons” Sunday night? Someone was being kidnapped from a voting booth and the kidnapper said, “Go ahead and scream. This is an off-year municipal election. There is no one to hear you for miles.” or words to that effect.
I am trying to do what I can to get some folks interested enough to vote in this key election. I think the low turnout for today’s “free lunch” is an indication that we are not going to buy the FPL song and dance anymore. Literally thousands showed up for the first tea-party rally at the County Administration Building and it was set at 10AM on a workday. Last time I checked, most folks with jobs get a lunch hour. Maybe the public is starting to see through this obvious attempt to manipulate the election.
Anything with less than 100 people is a waste of time. I can canvass and talk to 30 people in a couple hours.