COMMENTARY

BEA GARDNER

Editor’s note: Blogger Bea Gardner is the creator of Bea-Isms.com.

Political campaigns are more or less being financed through a system of legalized bribery. It happens on the National level and I think it is becoming more and more apparent on the local political scene. Think of all the money FPL has thrown into the hands of a few of the Candidates running for office in Indian River County and think of the outside money that was poured into the Shawn Frost Campaign in order for him to usurp Common Core. Yep, all of this screams of the old adage – “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”.

Let’s take a look at our local candidates and how their campaign contributions might tell the story.

If I did not know much about the candidates, but I was of the mind to check out the money in each one of their campaigns, who do you think would win each race? Hands down let’s say Daryl Loar wins because he has $61,675.00 to Darrell Rivers $6,490.00. Well, that was easy folks. Here’s more along that line.

I see Joe Earman beating Tim Zorc in the District 3 race because he already has doubled Zorc’s campaign war chest with $10,674.92 to Zorc’s $5,665.00. Along the same line of thinking, at this time we will have to give the District 5 seat to incumbent Bob Solari. He has amassed $28,950.00 to Jay Kramer’s $$6,550.00.

If money talks we will see Susan Adams win District 1 with $7,675.00 to Jim Hills meager $1,510.00. Along this same train of thought, Wesley Davis will beat longtime incumbent Property Appraiser David Nolte with Davis holding $15,900.00 in his war chest to Nolte’s $7,775.00.

Now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of the local City Council races which will be taking place in November. These are the races that will affect your lives the most and they should be the easiest ones to read but….that is not always the case. First of all, they are non-partisan races. In other words, party affiliation does not matter. When you serve on a city council you are hopefully elected to serve all the citizens equally no matter what party they will claim. In fact, your party affiliation is not supposed to be disclosed during such races although Harry Howle did not abide by that rule when he ran last year for a seat on the Vero Beach City Council. He was fined for putting the statement on his campaign literature that he considered himself a Reagan Republican. Oh well, campaign finance laws don’t seem to matter much anymore. Just ask Shawn Frost.

The Sebastian City Council race will be uneventful other than the fact that there would not even be a race if perennial candidate Damien Gilliams had sat this one out. The three incumbents, Andrea Coy, Richard Gillmor and Bob McPartlan will win hands down but of course they will all go through the motions because of Gilliams throwing his hat in the ring. In fact, had Gilliams sat this one out as he should have he would have been able to save the City of Sebastian $25,000.00 because they would not have had to hold an election. Just saying.

The Vero Beach City Council race gets a bit more contentious. If money talks in this race we will see an upset with incumbent Amelia Graves. Here’s how it stacks up. Mayor Richard Winger, $15,385.50 and running a close second in fundraising is Harry Howle with $12,625.00. Laura Moss has amassed over $6,000.00 to Amelia Graves $4,568.87. Of course, the Vero Beach perennial candidate Brian Heady claims a hardship and does not pay a filing fee nor does he raise any funds.

The voters in Vero Beach must contend with the Howle lies about getting them out of FMPA and Laura Moss appears to be running for a seat on the Indian River Shores Council. Howle is telling everyone he will get the sale completed. When asked at the Tea Party Forum how he planned on doing it he hemmed and hawed and basically said he could not do it but he would make the legislature get the job done. So, that is the way he is lying to the public – letting people think he can do what the past councils could not do during the last four years and two million dollars’ worth of attorney fees to try to get the sale to completion. I predict that even with all his big money campaign chest he will not be able to fool the voters yet again with this old story.