Marion Politics

Abortion: Is a local candidate's position relevant?

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:50:21 GMT

We asked the heads of the local Democratic and Republican parties the following question: Candidates for local and state offices often include their positions on abortion in their platform. Since these candidates do not vote on U.S. Supreme Court justices, are their positions on abortion relevant?

Wright all wrong for Obama's campaign

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:10:59 GMT

One thing seems obvious about the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr: the only thing bigger than his mouth is his ego. Wright continues to haunt Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Is it time to open Florida's primaries?

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:00:42 GMT

The heads of the local Republican and Democratic parties were asked this question: Do you think Florida should hold open primaries, allowing voters to cast their ballots for any candidate they choose?

School Board candidates: Who's running and who's earning

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:00:07 GMT

Candidates are lining up to run against Marion County School Board member Steve Hering this fall.
      As of today, Hering had four opponents for the nonpartisan District 2 seat: Eleanor J. Drakeford, Jacqueline Porter, Bernard LeCorn and Johnathan Raymon Connell. Although Hering is the incumbent, he has yet to report any campaign contributions or spending, while Porter has contributed $30,000 of her own money to her campaign.
      Hering isn’t the only elected school official with competition. Bobby James, who was appointed to fill Kurt Kelly’s unexpired term when Kelly won a seat in the Florida Legislature, has two opponents: Mark Gamoneda and Karen Francis-Winston.
      A third School Board member, Judi Zanetti, is opposed so far by attorney Steve Shaw for her District 1 seat.
      Superintendent of Schools Jim Yancey may have the toughest competition of all. Voters will have to decide between Yancey and at least one other candidate for superintendent, Ronald John Wray. But they’ll also get to decide whether to abolish the elected superintendent position altogether and let the School Board appoint one, instead, to serve at the pleasure of the board.
       Yancey has this going for him, though: A huge advantage in campaign funding. He has raised more than $58,000 for his election bid, compared to about $260 for Wray.
        See the campaign reports for all the local candidates:
http://www.voterfocus.com/ws/wscand/candidate_pr.php?c=marion


by Tom McNiff

Congressman wants answers about Bear Stearns bailout

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:49:31 GMT

      U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, expressed concern Wednesday about the proposed bailout of troubled Bear Stearns, which would cost taxpayers at least $30 billion.
     In a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Stearns said he was concerned that the Fed had taken "unilateral action" in providing about $30 billion in loan guarantees to J.P. Morgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns.
     See the letter here.
     Stearns letter.pdf

-- Tom McNiff

Media should stop rooting for political candidates

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:37:42 GMT

There's an unwritten rule about reporters who cover sporting events: No cheering in the press box!
     So why is it that when it comes to something infinitely more important than a baseball game -- like a presidential election -- so many in the national media feel free to root for candidates.
    Fair and balanced? My eye. Hardball? Puh-leeeease!
    The cable networks trot out political cheerleaders every night, dress them up like real reporters and turn them loose on prime-time audiences with their sound-bite journalism and witty banter.
     And what are they talking about? Are they offering side-by-side comparisons of the health care plans put forth by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? Are they analyzing the details of John McCain’s economic stimulus package?
     No. They’re predicting outcomes in primaries that won’t occur for another week, imputing great significance to sometimes contradictory polls and divining great meaning from the most ordinary utterances and gestures of the candidates.
     In short, they’re giving us very little that could be considered useful in determining the value and practicality of the candidates’ ideas.
     Worst of all, the hosts of these “news” talk shows spend much of their time shilling for one candidate or another.
     There’s Chris Matthews, host of “Hardball” and a historically level-headed journalist, fawning over Barack Obama. He can frequently be seen characterizing another Obama speech as among the most important in American history or badgering a guest to do so, or comparing Obama’s statesmanlike qualities to JFK, Ronald Reagan and Abe Lincoln.
      Just visit MSNBC.com, click on the Hardball tab and check out the list of recent Hardball video clips, with titles like, “Presidency in Obama’s DNA” (the video leaves no doubt about it); “Clinton vulnerable on NAFTA?,” and “Grand Delusions for Clinton.”
      Following one of the early primaries, he reacted to a solid Obama speech with a child-like, “I really like this guy!”
       The high priests of politics aren’t much better at Fox, where John McCain is darling to all but the token liberal, Alan Colmes.
      So who cares if Chris Matthews, Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann (ugh. Please go back to ESPN) are doing a little cheerleading for one candidate or another?
      You should care. We should all care that some in the media have decided it isn’t enough to report politics thoughtfully and thoroughly. They want to be political king-makers as well.
      We in the press should report enough credible information to let you formulate your own conclusions about issues and events. Today, cable news show hosts try to guide us to a conclusion by inundating viewers with video clips, sound bites,“experts,” and their own analysis to support their views.
       And forget the good old days when voters would just cast ballots for the candidates who best reflected their values and ideals. Now, cable news networks sort the worthies from the unworthies for us. They have tilted the playing field toward some candidates by determining who the “serious” candidates are, lavishing their hand-picked frontrunners with coverage and virtually ignoring the rest.
        Against these odds, poor Mike Huckabee — cast by Matthews, Olbermann and others as a goofy hick — never stood a chance. Nor did some other candidates with leadership pedigrees, people like Bill Richardson and Joe Biden.
        Even those who manage to keep their candidacies alive into February often find themselves battling not only their opponents but endless media speculation about whether their campaigns are dying. After a while, people start believing it and getting behind the “electable” candidate.
        Maybe the problem is us. Perhaps we reward this behavior with ratings. Perhaps we shouldn’t.

-- tom mcniff

Local party leaders respond to Obama controversy

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:53:02 GMT

The heads of the local Republican and Democratic parties were asked: Barack Obama has drawn fire for his affiliation with a fiery Chicago minister. Should candidates – local or national – be judged by the company they keep?

Violanti: Obama makes historic speech on race in America

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:48:02 GMT

Sen. Barack Obama brought the issue of race out of the political closet and into the public dialog.

Ocala sells the old library to a high-tech institute, but one city councilman is not convinced it was wise

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:21:03 GMT

When the Ocala City Council sold the old downtown library to the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Tuesday night, Councilman Kyle Kay cast the only "no" vote.

     Why?

     Kay said this morning he would have liked to open up the process to see what other suitors might be willing to offer for the site. Perhaps another developer or entrepreneur would have offered more.

     IHMC got the building and land for $700,00, about a half million dollars less than its appraised value. Add to that $300,000 in economic incentives that IHMC will get, and the city has about $800,000 invested in this project.

     And Kay isn’t convinced that IHMC will be the economic development catalyst it aims to be.

     “I just don’t see that inspiring further economic development downtown,” he said. “We sold that (building and land) to IHMC for the land value alone, and my perception of them was that the value they bring as PhDs and lab technicians should speak for itself. Well, I’m not so sure.”

-- tom mcniff

Party Q & A: How do local parties help candidates?

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:32:04 GMT

So here are the responses from the Dems and Republicans to our latest question. Question: In what ways does your party help local candidates in their election campaigns?

A guide to winning the Independent vote

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:51:48 GMT

The Star-Banner asked the heads of the local Democratic and Republican parties the following question: What does your party have to do at the national level to win the important Independent vote in November?

Yikes! A 138 percent voter turnout?

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:11:32 GMT

No fraud ... just an oops

North Florida Presidential Primary Results

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:19:56 GMT

One can spend a lot of time browsing this interactive graphic from The New York Times showing county-by-county election results from Tuesday's Florida presidential primaries.

While John McCain and Hillary Clinton both won the I-4 corridor, South Florida and the statewide popular vote, many North Florida counties went against the statewide trend. Marion Republicans went for Mitt Romney -- and Romney, Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama and John Edwards each bagged a number of North Florida counties.

- Brian Thornton

Democrat or Republican: Who should occupy the White House?

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:13:17 GMT

Recently, the Star-Banner asked the heads of the local Democratic and Republican parties if they’d be interested in participating in this blog. The response was a resounding yes. So, each week, we will pose a question about local, state or national politics and will publish their unedited responses promptly. There are very few rules here: Answers can be as long or as short as they want, and the party heads can delegate the responsibility of answering a question to another member of the party if they choose. This Week’s Question: Why should voters elect a Republican/Democrat to the White House in November?

Political homework: Read these Web pages

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:26:29 GMT

The political Web pages of Marion County's early candidates for sheriff are as different as the two men themselves. And they are certainly worth checking out.

Commissioners sound off on property tax amendment

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:40:25 GMT

These are the thoughts of all five Marion County commissioners on the property tax amendment that goes before voters on Jan. 29.

Politics ... and more lies

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:51:47 GMT

The Internet is a lie-infested swamp of political libel. Here are a few tools to tell the facts from the fabrications.