- May 2, 2024
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A strong community needs strong leaders. Because we want our community to be as good as it can be, we'd like to share our opinion about the upcoming races on the Nov. 6 ballot. If you agree with us, vote. If you don't agree, vote anyway.
U.S. House District 6: Ron DeSantis
Heather Beaven is a common-sense candidate who would join with the rest of the country to give Congress a poor job rating. In our interview, she said: “In my perfect world, Congress would be able to pass legislation in even years and have to go back and clean up the stupid things they passed in odd years.”
She is smart, tough and passionate. But in the questionnaire we sent her, she spent most of her allotted space trying to deconstruct the questions, rather than proposing solutions to the problems facing our country. Some solutions she does propose are worrisome. For example, she says that to help the country become energy independent, the federal government should eventually convert its vehicles to natural gas and use that leverage to only award contracts to companies that will also convert to natural gas.
That sounds like a good idea on the surface, but it’s also perpetuating the problem of a federal government playing the role of picking winners and losers. The economy is simply too big and too complex for lawmakers to be in charge of it. The way to generate maximum productivity is to rely on the ingenuity of business owners to come up with solutions, let them try them out, and see who succeeds.
Ron DeSantis is young, fiery and a natural born leader. He has the potential to be a Republican star on the national stage. We knew him when …
More importantly, DeSantis shares our view of the role of government. Let’s give more and more control back to states and communities. And let’s stop pretending this $16 trillion debt doesn't exist. As much as some people might want the government to provide for us, we simply can’t afford it. It’s irresponsible. And quite frankly, it’s embarrassing that we have let our country get into such bad debt.
DeSantis is a man on a mission to bring us back to fiscal responsibility. We recommend DeSantis.
Florida Senate, District 6: John Thrasher
Kathleen Trued's questionnaire responses didn’t inspire us. She criticized privatization of government functions, which we normally believe is positive. She said government should partner with banks and “spare our citizens from the devastation of foreclosure.” We don’t wish foreclosure on any family, but partnering with banks to stop foreclosure is not the proper role of government.
Almost just as bad, long-time Florida legislator John Thrasher mostly stuck with Republican platitudes. He offered no specifics of his vision for the future. But, he supports free-market principles as a general rule, so we’ll stick with him. We recommend John Thrasher.
Florida House of Representatives, District 24: Milissa Holland
As it stands now, Medicaid patients have to be checked by a doctor before they can leave the emergency room — even if the malady is deemed by a nurse to be minor. That costs the taxpayers a lot of money.
Travis Hutson supports giving control back to the hospitals. That way, if a doctor is not needed, the patient can be released with just a nurse’s visit. The principle is sound: Give control to the people who are most qualifed and most aware of the situation (i.e., not government officials). Moreover, Hutson estimates it would save $500 million in the state’s budget.
In general, Hutson has sound ideas, and he has plenty of support from party leaders. We could support him in some election years.
But in this election year, he’s running against Milissa Holland.
Holland’s most consistent campaign message has been that we should vote for her because she is a local candidate, and this is Flagler County’s chance to have a true Flagler representative. But her mailing address is the least of her qualifications.
Holland has track record of public service. A Democrat with an open mind, she has the courage to vote against the majority when she feels strongly about an issue. She’s tough on the budget. As someone who has battled with unfunded state mandates as a county commissioner, she is a fierce advocate of home rule. She has been a consensus-builder at the local level, and she will be at the state level, too.
By contrast, Hutson touts his business experience and leadership qualities, but he just doesn’t have all that much life experience. We recommend Holland.
Flagler County judge: Melissa Moore Stens
Is this a choice between regular-guy Craig Atack and walking-resume Melissa Moore Stens?
Not exactly. We believe Atack is trustworthy and would be an admirable judge. We’d also love to write the story about a third generation of Atacks on the bench.
But Stens is more personable in real life than she comes across on the campaign trail. Her passion is most evident when talking about clients she has represented in domestic violence cases. She tells stories of people who have to be walked through the legal process step by step, with a no-nonsense honesty, but also with compassion because the clients often are begin spun around by the whirlwind of their personal lives.
The biggest criticism about Stens is her demeanor. But we believe she has the demeanor for the job. Couple that with her legal experience, which is more extensive and more comprehensive than Atack’s, and she has our vote. We recommend Melissa Moore Stens.
County Commission, District 5: Herb Whitaker
George Hanns has been a commissioner in Flagler County since 1992. He is at retirement age and said he considered hanging up the spikes, so to speak. But, he didn’t want Herb Whitaker to replace him, so he decided to run again.
That line of reasoning doesn’t fill us with confidence.
Hanns is the voice of history on the board, and is always good for a reality check at the end of commission debates. But he seems to lack the creative energy of his opponent.
Herb Whitaker has decades of business experience, has volunteered on citizen boards at the county level, and recently proposed an alternative solution to the county’s plans for an expanded jail. Those plans were dismissed, and perhaps rightly so, but his eagerness to think outside the box is refreshing.
Politics is a tough game, and sometimes nice guys finish last. While Hanns has helped Flagler become what it is today, we have to ask: What have you done for us lately? We recommend Whitaker.
County Commission, District 2: Frank Meeker
It seems that the negative campaigning of the primary has put Frank Meeker on edge. He seems more like a politician now than he did a year ago. Case in point: As state committeeman for the Republican party, he endorsed Travis Hutson for State House 24, even though he has been an ardent supporter of Democrat Milissa Holland in past races. In Meeker’s defense, he signed an oath as state committeeman to support fellow Republicans long before Holland decided to run, and he is a man of his word. But he admitted to being conflicted about, and he seemed to have a dark cloud hanging over him when we asked him about it.
We’re not the only ones who have seen Meeker’s increasingly politicized approach. When, after a long budget season that had basically been finalized already, Meeker suggested that the city could lower taxes even further, Mayor Jon Netts said that, given the cuts in services that would be required, tax cuts wouldn’t “solve a single thing except it gives you a little political breathing room this year.”
Abby Romaine, by contrast, is running with no party affiliation, and that is also the central plank in her platform. She says Meeker is beholden to his developer friends and to his party, whereas she will be free to advocate for the best interests of the residents. Period.
Romaine has the passion for the job. But her vision is somewhat vague. And she says she would implement efficiency strategies for government employees, but that is essentially a county administrator’s job; a commissioner is most valuable as someone who sets policy direction.
In the end, when we imagine Meeker and Romaine sitting down to debate land development issues or other laws, we feel more confident in Meeker. He has all the right experience for this position, dating back to his work for ITT before Palm Coast incorporated. He knows the history of all the issues. He does his homework better than any other politician in the county. And, considering his experience on the City Council, he might be one step closer to mollifying the heartburn that instantly arises whenever county and city officials enter the same room.
Equal to his experience is his knack for creative solutions. His idea of allowing impact fees to be portable is dynamite. Another good one: He says the county permitting process is too open-ended, and that staff needs to follow a time frame for responding to permit applications; that would give businesses something to count on, and therefore, something they could plan for.
We trust that, Meeker will channel his ambition to the service of the residents. We recommend Meeker.
Supervisor of Elections: Kimberle Weeks
If you had told us six months ago that we’d be recommending Kimberle Weeks to be re-elected, we’d have said you were insane.
Her relationship with the County Commission made her the laughingstock among elected officials for a budget season or two. She used some creative budgeting to give her staff extra money and tried to hide it from the county (they saw right through it). The reports of poor customer service and lack of information abound from her office.
But, what do you want from a supervisor? You want fair and accurate elections. And the governor of Florida said she was tied with 12 other supervisors as having the top score in the state in a recent rating system. She delivers results quickly on election night.
And while we like Trey Corbett’s enthusiasm, we don’t really believe his marketing skills — or anyone’s, for that matter — could raise turnout by 10%. As Weeks said, people vote in the general election, which means they understand the process well enough. It’s just that, by and large, people don’t care as much about local elections, leading to pitiful turnouts. You could probably blame Weeks for being obstinate with the county, but you probably can't blame her that your neighbor decided to watch reruns instead of voting.
Corbett may have more experience as a supervisor, but after four years in office, Weeks has more experience as supervisor of elections. We recommend Weeks.
Flagler County Sheriff: Donald Fleming
Everything Donald Fleming has said in this election has been contradicted by Jim Manfre. Likewise, everything Manfre has said has been contradicted by Fleming. They have called each liars. They have claimed, basically, that the world will explode if the other were to be elected.
That’s what makes this the most difficult call on this ballot. Who do we believe?
Fleming was recently found in violation by the state for having accepted a free gift at the Hammock Beach Resort. He said he wasn’t aware it was a problem, but since then he has repaid the money. This isn’t good for Flagler County. But after hearing Fleming’s explanation that he consulted his attorney about this in 2009 and followed his advice, we don’t see this as evidence of low ethical standards by Fleming.
Fleming also gave two different accounts of the phone calls he had with John Fischer following a hit-and-run case last year. Again, it’s never good when a sheriff is involved in case like this, but it’s a small town; sometimes you know someone who gets in trouble. He says he didn’t offer Fischer any legal advice in the matter, and when the Florida Highway Patrol questioned Fleming about it, the agency determined he was not in the wrong, and moved on.
The ethical concern that is most troubling of all is the one involve one of Fleming's officers, Jamie Roster, who was investigated by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and found to have falsified time sheets, resulting in $8,000 of extra pay. Roster was demoted, as a result. Manfre says he would have fired Roster immediately. Fleming said there are other aspects that are still being investigated, and he is waiting to see the results before making any further decisions. Again, this seems reasonable, though it is the one that seems most likely to cause problems in the future.
Still, Fleming is innocent until proven guilty. We are uncomfortable basing our endorsement on allegations. Based on what we know now, Fleming’s reactions to each of these three cases seems reasonable.
If we put those concerns aside, the question that really matters is this: Has Fleming made Flagler County safer? According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, when you compare the first six months of this year to the same period last year, crime is down 8.9%. Fleming has instituted several programs to get involved in the community and has biweekly meetings with 30 officers to share information and analyze crime data and determine a plan of action to attempt to prevent crime in neighborhoods.
Although Manfre paints Fleming in a poor light, it just doesn’t seem to check out. We recommend Fleming.
