by Joe Courter
Primaries are over. A look back on them before looking ahead to November …
Thank you to all who took democracy seriously and engaged in campaigning for office. Stepping up to run is a big move, and within campaigning there is stress, and also a lot of side-taking and at times negative criticism lobbed around.
Within our community there were and still are divisions about the controversial single family/exclusionary zoning proposal among people who otherwise get along well and are generally on the same page (see page 7). It is unfortunate the outgoing commissioners decided to try and ram this through, but now is the time when the big election picture needs to come into focus, even as that divisive proposal lingers.
Overall the results were good from our point of view; many of our favored candidates came through with wins, or at least into a run off. Gary Gordon, July Thomas and Prescott Cowells ran hard but came up short; we offer thanks for their efforts.
This election in November is huge, from statewide down to local. Get involved to get out the vote (GOTV) in whatever ways you can, keep your hopes up and counter the doomers as you run into them with your best rationale for not giving up. Any Dem we have on the ballot is better than the Repub they face. This is especially true for Congressional Rep. District 3 with Danielle Hawk trying to unseat the rather revolting Kat Cammack, a “stop the steal” Trumper.
In Florida Rep. Dist. 22, Peters beating Clements would be really sweet. Both those races need help in the outside Alachua County areas of their districts; plug in with them if you are so moved.
County Commission races are major in impact, and even if you dislike what is at the top of the ballot, get the vote out down the ballot: 100% for Alford, Cornell and Wheeler.
Nonpartisan city races include run off for two district seats (we like Ingle over Book and Willets over Cain) and the mayor (Ward over Bielarski).
There will be additional items at the bottom of the ballot that we will go into detail about in the October Iguana: three state constitutional amendments, and two for the County, which are of import and our local voice is needed. NO to county commission single member districts, and YES to a 1% sales tax for Wild Spaces/Public Places, road repair, fire stations and affordable housing. The article by Hutchinson on page 10 gives details on the last two local ballot measures.
Going out in July, I slacked on giving endorsements for Attorney General and Sec. of Agriculture, and a number of people … almost a dozen … called me about that. It is humbling to have you seek out our opinion, won’t slack again. And speaking of that, we are changing our printing schedule a bit. It was nuts to do coverage of an election August 23 with a paper printed July 5. Here forward we will do an April/May edition, then a June/July edition, and August will stand alone, and have a chance to be more timely and comprehensive about the August primary elections.
And lastly, an apology to Gary Gordon for a screw-up in the print July/August edition, which saw a word left out in the paragraph about his race which misstated his position on single family zoning. In attempting to say he was against the “Exclusionary Zoning proposal” the word “proposal” was dropped. I should have read the copy that someone sent back to me closer. We corrected it in the online edition, and posted corrections where we could. My fault for not catching it.
In order to vote in Alachua County, your voter registration needs to be done by Tuesday, Oct. 11. This includes new voters, updating addresses, or switching your registration to here from wherever else you are registered. They are really helpful down there at the Supervisor of Elections, just north of downtown on N. Main St. (Phone 352-374-5252).