The Gainesville Iguana

By Amy Trask, Democratic Nominee for FL HD-22

It was rainy outside, but on primary night, many of us joined the ACDEC (Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee) gathered at Heartwood Soundstage for an election watch party. We watched results roll in live, heard from candidates, and celebrated the wins that came across the screen.

I’ll be honest – primaries always give me pause. Maybe it’s because the last primary, I was watching the results of my own race with shaking hands and hesitant hope. We called it the “little red wagon campaign” because that’s exactly what it was: sweat, tears, caffeine, grit, and a whole lot of faith. No fancy apps. No paid staff. It was just me and my two kids – then six and nine – walking doors with me, flyers printed from my home printer, and cookies or roll‑ups made in my kitchen for meet and greets. 

This interview is from a continuing series of transcript excerpts from the collection of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida.

Monique Williams [W] interviewed Heather Loran [L] on Oct. 26, 2010. Loran, a first-generation UF student, speaks on what motivated her to come to UF and how the scholarship she received helped. She also gives advice to new students. 

Transcript edited for length and clarity by Beth Grobman; a full transcript of this interview is available at tinyurl.com/iguana9874

W: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself – the town you grew up in, your family?

L: I’m from Sumter County. It’s about an hour south of here, cow pastures and a Wal-Mart. I graduated salutatorian at my high school. I was very involved in high school; I cheered and did extracurricular activities and such. I applied to UF and yay, I’m here! I’m a Gator. [Laughter]

by Ethan Maia de Needell, Rural Women’sHealth Project

Earlier this month, the Alachua County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution originally brought to the dais by the immigrant advocacy alliance Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative (GINI), with the support of over 2,500 petition signatures from residents and 17 organizations throughout Gainesville and Alachua County. The petition and resolution demanded our local elected leaders to speak out against the racist and destructive arrests by immigration enforcement in our communities. 

This campaign by GINI came after nearly a year and a half into the federal and state mass deportation campaign, with no recognition by our elected leaders on the impact here in Alachua County. Since the beginning of 2025, we have seen the expansion of ICE into our region with the creation of “Deportation Depot” at Baker Correctional Institution (the sister-site to the now-closed infamous “Alligator Alcatraz”) a proposed warehouse detention center in Bradford County, and grants from ICE targeting Gainesville as a potential location for an administrative office. 

by Donna Bradbrook

On Nov. 3, Florida voters will decide on Amendment 3, a sweeping property-tax proposal that would expand homestead exemptions on primary homes and reduce assessment growth on non-homestead properties (including second homes, vacation rentals, vacant land, and commercial property). 

In addition to reduced revenues coming into cities and counties, the state’s proposed tax amendment would dictate how cities, counties, and voter-approved special taxing districts use property tax revenues by mandating a specific list of how those property tax revenues could be used.   

by Joe Courter

The nation’s 250th birthday, Trump style, is not over, even as we’ve passed his July 4th ego tripping events such as the major motorsports spectacle on the streets of our nation’s capital. 

So here’s a local angle looking back on the Bicentennial celebration of 1976 that you might appreciate, and I was glad to learn.

I had just arrived in Gainesville in 1976, and there was this community project going on to build a downtown plaza, using a lot of community labor and the bricks from the recently torn-down courthouse building. I and many others participated in creating what we now know and love as Bo Diddley Plaza. I took for granted this was simply a cool local idea. I did not know this back history until I heard this report on NPR, citing the original report by Louis Jacobson in Politico from June 15. Looking back on the Bicentennial in 1976, he reported:

Following is a list of candidates that your Central Labor Council of North Central Florida has endorsed thus far this election cycle. We hope you will join us in supporting these champions for working Floridians.

Congratulations to the recent victors!

Alachua County Judge Eric Atria

Dr. Sarah Rockwell, Alachua County School Board

Reverend Cummings, Marion County School Board

by Chuck Ross

At GRU Authority’s May 2026 meeting, members considered renewing the long-standing agreement for GRU to bill City Stormwater and Solid Waste fees monthly. GRU would have received about $1 million, up from $820,000. Jack Jacobs and David Haslam opposed the agreement, creating a 2-2 impasse with Eric Lawson and Chip Skinner in favor, so the contract failed. 

CEO Ed Bielarski recommended renewal, and Interim COO Brian Singleton said the City accepted higher GRU costs to avoid annual tax-bill collection and a possible $2 million to $2.5 million revenue loss. 

by Savannah Green

Wetland destruction. Endangered Species Loss. A government fighting its own people.

These are not hypothetical problems in a fictional land – that is what is happening right now at the University of Florida with their recent annihilation of historic Graham Woods.

Just a few weeks ago, the University of Florida cut down nearly every one of the roughly one thousand trees in what was once Graham Woods, a treasured habitat sanctuary in the center of campus. It was south of the basketball arena and home to an endangered species and documented archaeological site, but has now been reduced to piles of broken trees amidst cold construction equipment: a landscape become a deathscape.

by Mary Savage

Attention! Attention! Politicians who may not have our best interests at heart are pushing legislation to establish a “fiscal commission” that would meet in secret with limited, if any, public input to decide the future of our earned benefits and quality of life for ordinary working Americans.

The Social Security Trust Fund is projected to send out payments reduced by 22 to 25 percent beginning in 2032. (A retiree, for example, who gets $2,000 a month will only get $1,500 a month.)

by Joe Courter

The words (printed on page 2) and melody of a wonderful Cat Stevens song from 1971’s “Tea for the Tillerman” flowed into my jukebox of a brain a day or two after the election. Already buoyed by the statewide victory of Abdul Al Sayed in Michigan in the race for Senate, we had our own Senate race with a surprising victory with Angie Nixon. Yes, as the multiple horrors of this Trump administration bombard our senses and sensibilities and we feel the threat of authoritarian domination coming down the road, it is really easy to feel overwhelmed. I refuse to concede to hopelessness and powerlessness. And here was proof that the control of the corporate Democratic party and huge outside money was being rejected by people who just want sensible, practical policies enacted — health care, education, justice for all, an end to ICE brutality, an end to needless wars. It was a profound feeling of hope in my heart. I could “feel a change a-coming.”

by Joe Courter

So, yes; the primary election happened, and here is the list of folks, all Democrats, who could be part of a hoped-for Blue Wave. We really need to make it happen, and having Angie Nixon win so convincingly is really a good sign! People are ready for change!

Consider plugging in to help get out the vote. Places that really could use help are some of the local grassroots races. 

Jason Fultz, Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, and Amy Trask are all progressive folks who would be challenging the direction of the Florida legislature. Even if you do not live in their districts, they could use help with campaign work, should you want to venture out of our Blue Bubble here in Gainesville. 

Hunter Miller is in a run-off against a DeSantis School Board appointee; help there can really make a difference, too.

The Supervisor of Elections office has a great website for campaign information at votealachua.gov, and the local Democratic Party can help, too, at alachuademparty.com.

Let’s do this.

by CWA Local 3170

Public employees at the City of Gainesville, Gainesville Regional Utilities, Gainesville Housing Authority and the Alachua County Library District represented by CWA Local 3170 have until Nov. 1 to reach 60 percent union membership, or they could lose their union representation.

That deadline is the local consequence of major changes the State of Florida has made to public-sector labor law.

by Howard Simon, MSN

Soon after I arrived in Miami in the late 1990s, Marco Rubio of West Miami was elected to the Florida legislature.

Even back then he was railing against “the Left.” 

He was not alone. Numerous Miami politicians pandered to the Cuban American community, directing anger at those allegedly ideologically aligned with the revolutionaries who seized power (and their property) on the island. Rubio’s then-roommate and buddy, former U.S. Rep. David Rivera, now a convicted felon, was skilled at this dark art.