Timkin
I will gladly discuss all of this with you over coffee one day but just share a few thoughts now. I am not even going to attempt to convince you or anyone else who is in support of Alvin to change their vote. Most already have their minds made up and many have already voted. What I will say is that Glorious was in the race for real and I was her paid campaign consultant, at her request. As discussed on several threads, it became apparent to me after the November elections and the losses of Dems Alex Sink and Deborah Gianolis that a Democrat woman would not win the election for Mayor. With Glory's mom becoming terminally ill and some of my own health issues, seeing the campaign through was no longer an option. What most don't know is another of Glory's immediate family members is also dying and in hospice. The politics, the terminal illnesses of family members and the pressures of negotiating the political minefield that is Black politics has left her exhausted and conflicted with people pushing at her with their agenda's from all directions. Once I was no longer her political advisor, I could only give her suggestions as a friend. Her choices as they have always been are ultimately her own.
If you look at the political landscape in this contest for Mayor you will see that people have had to adjust who they supported as the field of candidates changed. It has been morphing and changing now for nearly two years. As things changed and information became available people began to adjust their own views of candidates accordingly. After March elections, the candidates for Mayor were cut down to two people. Moran's people choosing a different candidate, Mullaneys people readjusting and picking sides and so it went on down the line.
Mike Hogans platform when it comes to our budget and how funding would be expended is identical to the one Glorious had. Infact, alot of his platform was the same and while some of our political views may be different I had to look at each person in the race, using my own information and experience, much of it not available to the public and I knew for me Hogan was the candidate with the experience and understanding to get us through this financial mess we are all facing. I had questions to be answered and I went to Mike with them. I found him to be a man very different than what was being portrayed and far more open and accepting than many make him out to be. In short, he is a good man who wants to do right for Jacksonville. Of course what has happened and always happens in politics is that their is the truth and there is the spin and unavoidable conflicts that political contests evoke. Saying Mike is a good man is one thing, but finding out that he is also a very capable and informed man was the clencher for me. He has an indepth and accurate understanding of how this city operates.
There are many levels to this chess game and every candidate, every single one has got to play their turn as well as they can. The reality in politics at this level is that there are teams behind the candidates who set schedules, decide on mailers, ads and promo material. The candidate hires them to use their expertise to appeal to their own voting base first and then campaign tactics change to meet each new event and day.
I am supporting Mike Hogan because he really has a solid plan for the city. All the side noise about religion and church that was so compelling for some at the beginning of this race has now settled down because Alvin has also spoken about and focused on his church and faith.
You may remember for awhile there was this talk about the GOB's controlling Jacksonville. Because Hogans family has been in Jacksonville since its origin, he was well known and it was easy for people to cast him as a GOB. What folks were not realizing at the time and still don't is that some of the most influential players of the GOB establishment were entrenched behind, Moran and Mullaney. For those who had embraced Moran as a moderate republican, the focus of some of them went to Alvin as new blood and a new direction that was free of GOB and republican interests. However, as the field of powerbrokers took up sides and deals were brokered or refused, folks like Rummel and Haskell put their efforts behind Brown. The result being that the presence of the GOB republicans and their money is what began to move Alvin forward. At that point Alvin moved center and started to put distance between himself and his strong democrat connections to appeal to the middle and hopefully with Rummel, get more Republicans to his side. So that put him on a par with everyone else when it came to GOB connections and effectively removed this notion that a Brown administration would be light years away from the old ways of doing business. Brown has plans for his administration to include some of the nifty fifty (civic council folks) as well as some of Peytons current adminstration.
This city saw the effect of putting a mayor into office that claimed he would run the city like a business yet had no real experience in city government when John Peyton was elected. Major mistakes were made as a result of that choice. Jacksonvilles current and economic future must be brought into balance and much of this city's functions retooled. Someone new, inspite of charisma and good intentions but lacking boots on the ground experience in elected or local office is not the choice I was willing to make for our future. I know the next four years are going to be very, very hard for the next Mayor and for me the person who should step into that office must know the ropes of local government in and out to get us through the next four years and on the way to a better future.
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