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past Hometown PAC call to candidates at Salute Ristorante on Higgs Beach
Yesterday afternoon’s 99 percent white Hometown PAC call to candidates proved interesting to me personally.
Entering Salute Ristorante , I was hailed by its owner Richard Hatch, who asked if I had any plans for a naked woman to spring forth this year? No, I said, I was not aware of any young woman inclined in that direction this year.
Here’s the front of my campaign T-shirt from that year’s mayor race, 2009:
And here’s the original artwork for the front, designed by my friend Sandy Downs, on her dime, and run as an add in Key West the Newspaper …
Here’s the drawing I did of the young damsel, who stopped the show, for a while, at that year’s Hometown PAC’s call to candidates, by showing up topless on her bicycle and hollering, “Sloan for Mayor! Nude beaches for Key West!”, which drawing became the back of my campaign T-shirt.
Her topless photo appeared on the front page of the next day’s Key West Citizen. She became known as Aphrodite.
When asked yesterday afternoon by various people I knew, what am I running for this year?, I said, varying it … the county line … the state line … the Canadian line …
Hometown PAC’s 2014 call to candidates, me jiggling Hometown’s Carol Wightman’s fanny at the welcome booth, that’s my 2009 mayor campaign T-shirt, Carol kindly declined my invitation yesterday afternoon for a repeat fanny jiggle; below is my 2012 campaign T-shirt, which also had Aphrodite on its back
When asked by one of the helpful friendly ladies managing Hometown’s welcome table yesterday afternoon, why I was not running this year?, I said … because the angels didn’t tell me to run for anything this year … Oh, she said … I said, Ha!, when in the past I said the angels told me to run for this or that office, nobody believed me, but now I’m saying the angels didn’t tell me to run, and people are pressing me to run …
After the candidates had all done their thing yesterday afternoon, I gave gave former city commissioner Barry Gibson much the same spiel, when he said I need to run for something this year, to stir the pot; an election season without Sloan running is missing something.
Barry
I said, well, I’m homeless and that means my voting district is where I get my mail, the U.S. Post Office branch in the Winn-Dixie shopping center on North Roosevelt, and that’s outgoing city commissioner Mark Rossi’s district, and my friend and my lawyer Sam Kaufman is running for that seat and did he, Barry, want me to run against Sam?
Sam
Well, no, you don’t want to run against Sam, Barry said, but you’re not homeless. Oh, yeah, I’m homeless, I just a little while ago filled out a form for our Supervisor of Elections Joyce Griffin, saying I’m homeless and that’s my voting district now. She didn’t believe me, either, but I told her to believe it and to give me the form, which she did.
Well, still, you need to run for something this year, Barry said. I’d run against Mike Mongo, I said, if I lived in his voting district, which is sitting commissioner Teri Johnston’s voting district
Mike
Teri already had announced a little while before that she would not seek reelection this year, and Mike had stepped up behind her and made a big commotion about how great a job Teri had done, and he had nothing but respect for her.
Teri
I wondered, didn’t tell Barry, if Mike had so much respect for Teri, how come he filed to run for her commission seat before she announced last night that she would not seek reelection this year? Hmmm, unless she had told him she was not going to seek reelection.
I told Barry, find me a place to live in Mike’s voting district.
The district where I lived in a private home on Seminary Street, before I was made to leave because I called the cops on a man living in that home, who had attacked his wife and the home. The owner, who lives there too, threw me out, instead of the man, and I went to live 4 months with my friend Todd German, who MC’d Hometown PAC’s meeting yesterday afternoon. Then, sensing it was time for me to move on, I came back into Key West to be homeless there again, what great fun.
Todd
Barry said, he’d be on the lookout for me a place to rent. I said, no, I cannot afford rent. Be on the look out for me a place for free, and I’ll sleep on his advice that I run for something this year, and see what the angels say. Barry said he bets the angels will tell me to run for something this year, eventually, if not last night. Perhaps so, I said. The angels were mum about that last night.
They were not in the least mum, though, about my giving Teri Johnston a thumbs up from my seat in the audience, when she said she would not seek reelection this year, but next year there would be several opportunities whereby she could serve Key West from a higher position. For more on that, see the Citizen article trailing this mewling and puking.
I figured the angels slammed me for giving Teri the thumbs up, because I had called for her and the other city commissioners and mayor to all resign, after they had not shown any remorse for, nor had they publicly apologized to the family of Charles Eimers, who was murdered by KWPD officers on South Beach Thanksgiving Day 2013, and they had kept on their police force the ringleader of the murdering cops, Gary Lee Lovette, who was recorded on his own taser video as saying they had killed, they had murdered, that man.
Gary Lee Lovette, Key West’s model cop
Also, perhaps Teri not being kindly inclined towards homeless people was in play when the angels pounded me last night for giving her the thumbs up.
The night before last, Monroe County Mayor Emeritus Shirley Freeman
Shirley
told me in a dream, “She is mean.” I did not understand the dream until I was pounded by the angels last night, for giving Teri the thumbs up. Her favorite word for homeless people is vagrants. Same for her buddy County Commissioner Heather Carruthers.
Between the two of them, and their Friends of Higgs Beach Committee, Teri and Heather developed a plan to completely rebuild Higgs Beach, which belongs to Monroe County, so no homeless person could even be on it. This vagrant was on that committee for a while, felt I was among Nazis, and said so.
When I pedaled my bicycle to Higgs Beach for Hometown PAC’s call to candidates yesterday evening, I surveyed what is there now, and imagined what it will eventually look like, and the million$$$ that will cost to bring off, said to myself, “The work of the devil,” and pedaled the short distance to Salute and the call to candidates.
A few high points, for me, at the call to candidates:
A woman friend of modest means, who reads my daily ravings, walked over, hugged me, and stuck a $20 bill in my hand, said it isn’t much, but she hopes it helps. I hugged her, said thanks.
When Todd German began the ceremony by calling for candidates in the first race, Keys Energy Board, to come forward, my friend Eirka Biddle sitting beside me said, “Now the lying begins.”
Erika
The last thing Barry Gibson said, as we wound up our conversation after the ceremony had ended, was, you are known for telling people at these events that they can’t handle the truth. I said, yeah, I’ve been known to say stuff like that.
I met Mike Mongo in 2002. We became good friends. I like him.
He wants everyone to love everyone; he tells everyone he loves them, no matter how they behave.I think he will be great for the city commission, who, I imagine, will be greatly relieved Teri Johnston is no longer on it. She has no qualms about making them all look like they have not done their homework, have not thought through what they are voting on, and have not put first the best interests of the city and its people.
Also yesterday evening, I told Barry Gibson that Sam Kaufman told me he thinks one of his opponents, Skip O’Neal, might be homeless, and might not even live in the voting district for which Sam and former Mayor Morgan McPherson are running.
I told Barry that, and that I had spoken with Supervisor of Elections Joyce Griffin about it, and she had said she didn’t think a candidate had to live in a voting district until the filing date, or perhaps not until election day; and she was going to look into that by calling the City Clerk, and I then could call her and find out what she had learned. Barry said, by the filing date, a city office candidate has to live in the voting district for which he/she is running.
In his filing papers with the Supervisor of Elections, Skip O’Neal shows his residence address is 1401 Truman Ave. He keeps his tricycle locked to a light pole at the traffic light on Truman Avenue across from the public tennis courts. Joyce Griffin told me that side of Truman Avenue is not in the voting district of the seat Skip seeks.
Here’s the Citizen (keysnews.com) article on Hometown PAC’s affair, I added a few comments in bold italics, and some pics:
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Johnston won’t seek reelection
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
City Commissioner Teri Johnston won’t seek a third term this fall, leaving the District 5 seat wide open, but she may run for another office in the 2016 election.
“In 2016, there are going to be a number of political opportunities available that will allow me to serve Key West on a higher level,” Johnston said Wednesday at Hometown PAC’s forum held in advance of the Oct. 6 election. “I’m not going anywhere, believe me. I love this process. I love this town.”
In Key West, the mayor’s office is up for grabs next year, along with two county commission seats based in Key West and held by Heather Carruthers and Danny Kolhage.
After the event Wednesday, Johnston said she is weighing her options and eyeing both offices.
Teri might have a tussle running for mayor against incumbent Craig Cates and retiring city commissioner Mark Rossi - that would be an interesting race. I seriously doubt Teri will run against her good buddy County Commissioner Heather Carruthers, unless Heather ops out of seeking reelection.
An Iowa native who has been a permanent resident of Key West since 2001, Johnston was first elected to the city commission in 2007 — succeeding Carruthers, who is now in her second term on the county commission.
Johnston isn’t the only elected city leader considering making a jump to county government. Mayor Craig Cates on Wednesday said he may run for the county commission seat held by Kolhage.
Maybe Craig is talking about running for county commission because he doesn’t think he can win in a race against Mark Rossi and Teri Johnston. I asked Danny Kolhage yesterday evening if he’s going to run next year? Yes, he said.
Danny
Danny ran for the county commission unopposed in 2012, after serving several exemplary terms as Monroe County Clerk of the Courts, which department went to hell after Danny became a county commissioner.
Craig
Cates might find running against Danny won’t be much fun, since I imagine Danny will landside sweep the 3 county voting districts above Key West, and I think Danny will win the 2 Key West county voting districts without breaking much sweat.
Cates attended the forum, held at Salute at Higgs Beach, but didn’t speak during the call for mayoral candidates.
“That’s not until next year,” Cates said.
Ed Krane, who filed paperwork earlier this year to run for mayor, told the crowd he wants to promote Key West’s art scene and community. He remains the only announced candidate.
Johnston’s announcement at first drew sounds of dismay from many in the audience. But people immediately burst into cheers when she said she may seek a higher office in 2016.
Mike Mongo, who late Friday became the first candidate to file for the District 5 seat, praised Johnston and led the crowd in a round of applause for her years of service before making a quick campaign pitch.
“You’ve been the voice of intelligence many times at the city commission meeting,” Mongo said. “I hope to do at least as good a job as you did.”
Johnston was cut short on stage Wednesday by the forum’s emcee, Todd German, who politely told her she had to step down.
Hometown PAC’s rules state that only prospective candidates, even those merely thinking about running, may take a turn at the microphone for an allotted two minutes.
“Okay, I can’t speak,” Johnston said, ending her brief speech.
Of the three city commission seats up for reelection this fall, only one is contested so far: the city commission race for District 2, which Mark Rossi is giving up after nearly 11 years in office.
Mark
Qualifying for the Oct. 6 election runs from Aug. 17-21. This time around, commissioners and utility board members will serve three-year terms, as the city synchs its elections with statewide contests.
Trying to succeed Rossi are attorney Sam Kaufman, former mayor Morgan McPherson and retired engineer Skip O’Neil, who each took a turn during the forum.
Kaufman called affordable housing in Key West a crisis that deserves to be addressed at every commission meeting.
“We’re losing our family members because they can’t afford to live here,” Kaufman said, adding that the city also needs the assisted living center voters demanded years back. “I think it’d be a good idea to have a lawyer on the board this time, especially with Uber and what’s happening.”
Kaufman engaged the audience and hammered tough issues.
McPherson read from a prepared speech, saying he would work to reduce windstorm and flood insurance rates.
Morgan, I can’t find a photo for Skip O’Neil
“It’s time that our city leadership sets the pace instead of lagging behind,” McPherson said. “There is not a political answer in Tallahassee, it’s on us.”
O’Neil said his lengthy career in his family’s Chicago-based construction firm, which built that city’s Navy Pier, makes him an ideal city commissioner.
“My education is as a building engineer — civil and structural,” O’Neil said. “There is nothing I can’t do or haven’t done.”
Kaufman, whose supporters Wednesday wore his blue and white campaign T-shirts, has raised $16,210 and spent $8,958, according to the latest campaign finance reports that cover Feb. 1 through June 30.
McPherson, who filed for office April 29, has raised $6,800 and spent $1,300 while O’Neil has raised $2,745 and spent $1,680 between Feb. 1 and June 30.
City Commissioner Tony Yaniz had a competitor briefly this year but now remains without opposition as he seeks a second term.
Fredy Varela said Monday he has dropped out of the race due to health concerns, taking his doctor’s advice. Varela had raised $10,290 and spent $9,687, since filing Feb. 13.
gfilosa@keysnews.com
sloanbashinsky@outlook.com
photo by Todd German, at Salute, circa 2009
