Special Election
Update: Ms Fernald lost, but she got over one-third of the votes in a rushed election, with almost no money to spend. She didn’t have a single sign that I’ve seen in Okaloosa County but over 5,500 people turned out to vote for her. Normally Republicans win with around 75% of the vote in this county, so this was a very good showing.
We have a special election tomorrow to fill the seat left vacant when our local Florida house rep got caught with his hand in the “cookie jar” of the state budget to the tune of several million dollars.
We actually seem to have a person who is a self-declared Democrat running, Jan Fernald. Despite her late start, she seems serious about this, and, surprise of all surprises, the Democratic Party of Florida is actually helping out with telephone banks.
She even has a website with an issues page, but she hasn’t used the blog that her host provided with the site.
I will vote, and I will vote for her, not because she is running as a Democrat, but because she: opposes off-shore drilling [for the right reasons, which she clearly states]; supports public education; and thinks the best way to balance the budget is to stop all of the corporate hand-outs.
Her opponent raised more than 80 times as much money as she did, but three-quarters of his money came from outside of the district, while hers all came from local friends and family.
It’s a long shot, but Republicans are so used to the primary being the only election, Ms Fernald could pull off an upset.
April 12, 2010 4 Comments
