The political buzz today, of course, is all about the presidential election. Rightfully so. The course of America, if not the world, is at stake.
And so is your individual liberty.
When you think through the existing conditions in America today and the consequences of this election, at the national level, it may indeed determine the outcome of what has been a long-running — but more intense over these past four years — War on Individual Liberty.
It’s simple: When the rulers burden you and your future generations with $16 trillion in national debt (and growing), this is a tightening noose around the neck of freedom. It cuts off the oxygen to your abilities to pursue your happiness. You (we) become slaves to the burdens sanctioned by government.
This War on Individual Liberty is not just at the national level. The roots of it begins here at home, in our neighborhoods, our schools, city and county commissions and at the state Capitol.
So here, we offer the Plant City Observer’s recommendations for president, state and local offices.
President of the United States
Our nation’s selection of a president for the next four years bears directly on our local well-being. Most of our candidates for state and local office have included in their platforms supporting the business community, job development and economic development. The Plant City Observer agrees with these goals, and we also believe those we elect locally will be greatly impacted in their pursuit of these goals by the person we elect to the White House.
To provide maximum support for local economic development will require a president who understands the private sector, how to grow a business and how to create permanent jobs. And it will take a president who believes the bedrock of America’s economic strength lies in the private sector.
Only one candidate meets these criteria.
Recommendation: Gov. Mitt Romney
Florida Senate, District 24
Though a newcomer to elective politics, Democrat Elizabeth Belcher is offering to serve in the Florida Senate based on experience as a community activist. During 37 years of federal employment as a criminal investigator with the Internal Revenue Service, Belcher was prevented by federal law from running for public office. Upon her retirement, she became involved in a several community issues. She worked to establish the Seffner/Mango Library and served as president of the Friends of Seffner/Mango Library.
Republican Tom Lee returns to politics after six years of concentration on the construction firm his family owns, Sabal Homes. He points to his nearly 25 years of continuous work in that business as helping him understand the needs of business owners and how government can best support those needs. Lee previously served for 10 years in the Florida Senate, from 1996 to 2006, and served his last two as president.
Lee’s previous service as a state senator, Senate president and his 25-year career as an executive and owner in the construction industry make him our clear choice.
Recommendation: Lee
Florida House, District 58
Jose Vazquez has spent most of his life in Puerto Rico. The jobs he held there, which he believes have prepared him to be a state representative, include security guard, driver for the mayor of a city, paramedic, Department of Education, Health, Families, and Children’s worker, and campaign manager for a political party working for United States statehood for Puerto Rico.
Sixth-generation Floridian Dan Raulerson earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida State University and later opened an accounting branch business in Plant City and then started his own accounting firm. He has served for five years in elective office as a city commissioner of Plant City, two of them as mayor. If elected, Raulerson wants to concentrate on making it easier for businesses to reach their potential, streamlining the system and making it easier for people to understand policies and regulations.
Although we are intrigued by the diverse background Vazquez possesses, Raulerson is the only true choice in this race.
Recommendation: Raulerson
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections
Craig Latimer spent 36 years in law enforcement, rising from crime scene investigator to major with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. He retired from the Sheriff’s Office in 2008 and coordinated former Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky’s campaign for election to that office. After her election, she appointed him chief of staff in 2009. After Busansky’s death in office, gubernatorially appointed Interim Supervisor of Elections Earl Lennard retained Latimer as chief of staff.
After a career in the United States Air Force as a pilot and as an information technology administrator, Rich Glorioso retired as a colonel and entered a career in electoral politics. He served for eight years as a commissioner in Plant City. He was then elected for four terms in the Florida House of Representatives. He was term-limited out of that office this year.
Although Latimer served with distinction in a career in law enforcement and security, Glorioso’s Air Force assignments in information technology management relate more closely to the large data-management functions of this office. Moreover, Glorioso’s service on the Plant City Commission required him to view and weigh many issues that encompassed the entire breadth of the city.
Recommendation: Glorioso
Hillsborough County Property Appraiser
When a long-serving incumbent loses a primary battle, it sometimes brings out a number of candidates who may have been eyeing the position themselves.
Democrat Bob Henriquez served a full eight-year period in the Florida House of Representatives District 58, from 1998 to 2006. In 2008, he won gubernatorial appointment as Sixth Judicial Circuit administrator. Until 2011, he headed the Department of Children and Families efforts in Pinellas and Pasco counties.
Non-partisan candidate James DeMio earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and from 1990 to 2000 served as an administrator and officer of the Housing Court Division of the Cleveland Municipal Court.
Non-partisan candidate Rob Townsend lists employment as a farm owner, miner and working in a combined cycle, power-plant operation among his qualifications. He says a return to the agriculture and business schedule is a must with a mandatory compliance of the new Value Adjustment Board rules.
With her father stationed in Germany and Turkey, Republican Ronda Storms grew up overseas as a military brat. She taught English at Bloomingdale High, before earning a law degree from Stetson University. After practicing law, Storms was elected to the Hillsborough County commission from 1998 to 2006. She then won election to the Florida Senate in 2006.
In her elective service, Storms has earned a reputation as an outspoken advocate for issues in which she believes, and we believe Storms will bring the same support here.
Recommendation: Storms
Hillsborough County Commission District 4
Nonpartisan candidate Joy Green has garnered much of her volunteer service in Aglow International, a worldwide Christian outreach program. Green has worked her way up to be regional director in charge of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina projects and leads about 3,000 women to drive grassroots movements and community events.
Democrat Mark Nash grew up in Brandon, earned a degree at Florida State University and spent his career with the Gillette Company, managing various business accounts across the eastern half of the country. He returned to Hillsborough County in 1997 to manage the Gillette shaving business at Publix Supermarkets.
Republican incumbent County Commissioner Al Higginbotham has worked as a congressional aide in Washington, D. C., and as an executive assistant to the Florida treasurer and insurance commissioner. From 2003 to 2006, he served as chairman of the Hillsborough County Republican Party, and in 2006, he was elected to the county commission. He lists helping in the creation of a new courthouse in Plant City, assisting in the preservation of the Bealsville community and creating more private sector-jobs in any year in the last decade.
We believe Higginbotham’s experience in Washington, Tallahassee and Hillsborough County — and his six years of service on the commission itself — make him the clear choice in this race.
Recommendation: Higginbotham
Hillsborough County Commission District 6
In what has become the most bitter race in Hillsborough County, Democrat incumbent Kevin Beckner faces a feisty opponent in Margaret Iuculano.
Recently, the race took a nasty turn as supporters (and opponents) of both candidates slung a fair amount of mud.
Developer consultant David Campo pulled into the spotlight Beckner’s time on the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County. The agency’s CEO recently was forced out following reports of questionable spending and no-bid contracts. Beckner maintains those contracts did not require board approval.
Iuculano has faced her own challenges. Beckner and his supporters have publicized her and her husband’s 2007 bankruptcy and two tax liens as examples of money mismanagement.
However, beyond the rhetoric, the two candidates are more alike than headlines would lead you to believe. As one of only two Democrats on a seven-member board, Beckner worked with his Republican counterparts to reduce the county’s budget by $1 billion. Iuculano, who served as CEO of TechSherpas, a local technical software training company, also brings her own expertise in small business and local economics.
To date, Beckner’s campaign contributions total (nearly $300,000) is about three times what Iuculano has raised. And although it would seem Iuculano is fighting an uphill battle here, we believe her business experience, combined with her life experiences as a product of the foster care system and as founder of the non-profit Angels for Foster Kids, makes her uniquely qualified to represent Hillsborough County.
Recommendation: Iuculano
Hillsborough County School Board District 7
It became clear after the August primary that Hillsborough County voters have lost trust in the current Hillsborough County School Board.
At that time, six candidates were vying for this countywide seat. And in the end, incumbent Carol Kurdell, who has served on the board since 1992, only garnered 35.99% of the votes.
That total has forced this runoff between Kurdell and candidate Terry Kemple.
Kemple has been a fixture in School Board meetings in the past year, largely in a campaign against the Council on American-Islamic Relations. A CAIR representative spoke to a class at Steinbrenner High School about a year ago. Kemple maintains the group harbors ties with terrorists.
He has a point. In 2009, federal judge Jorge A. Solis upheld the Justice Department’s decision to identify the organization as one with ties to the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine and the Hamas militant group.
We do support Kemple’s platform of School Board fiscal responsibility, parents’ rights and revamping accountability measures, but we also have concern about how effective his voice ultimately would be as one on a seven-member board.
Still, two decades is a long time to serve on a board, and we believe Kemple’s presence could be the beginning of a shift toward a board that would strengthen the family and its relationship to the school district.
Recommendation: Kemple