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| Next Mayor of Homestead Jon Burgess |
Councilman Jon Burgess is going to get off the fence and run. Lois Jones will drop out and support him. Steve Bateman's legal troubles will just get worse, maybe leading to a perp walk. Mark Bell will amass the most money but will lose big to Jon Burgess, infuriating Lynda Bell who is dying to get control of Homestead one way or another.
If Burgess doesn't run it is anybody's game. I guess the race will be between Porter and Bell with Jones being a long shot. I am counting on Bateman being gone, too much bad behavior, as are a lot of his former supporters.
16 comments:
Good theory. Don't count on Burgess unless Bateman gets arrested.
There is no such thing as the perfect candidate BUT by relative comparison, Burgess is not just head and shoulders above the rest, he is miles beyond the other contenders in terms of independence and honesty. My theory is that Bateman is negotiating his exit in order to keep his wife out of jail, protect his benefactors and keep his lucrative city pension. Porter has no traction and for now the only advantage Bell has is the fund raising ability of his wife, the Bateman scandal, a weak Porter and is generally the less tainted of the Bateman-Porter-Bell triad. Bell may win by default without a credible candidate such as Burgess in the race. Otherwise, how pathetic is it that from among a city of over sixty thousand, lets say 25 thousnad adults, this is the best crop of candidates we can field ?!
If KFR sits on her backside as usual, there are many in Homestead who see nothing morally or ethically wrong with what Bateman did and a campaign of negative information about him by either Porter or Bell could backfire. He and his wife are very adept at playing the part of a victim to the ignorant masses.
Bell has no chance unless there's AB fraud (continue reading!) Bateman hasn't been charged with anything nor do I see him making a deal with anyone. I "hear" alot of noise, and Rundle should really be doing other things then chasing her tail with this stuff.
Burgess won't run. Why would he? He doesn't have to stick his neck out for two more years. I wouldn't if I were him. If Bateman is re elected and something happens, he'll automatically be Mayor without having to run.
By the way whatever happened to the innocent until "proven" guilty stuff here? I'm no Bateman fan but come on. I think Spence Jones was much worse then this and look at how that worked out and how much it cost the taxpayers. No thank you!
I'd prefer to see the AB Brokers do the perp walk first, and then a few commissioners and even Mark Bell/John DuBois.
Porter? I just keep think Shiver will come back as the City Manager or something like that. No on him. Too much baggage and talk about bringing Homestead back to the future in a very bad way.
One problem with the above theory. After the election Burgess will no longer be the Vice Mayor to move up if Bateman gets pulled out. Homestead needs to be very careul about who they elect as the Vice Mayor in this election if they think Bateman will win. The choices so far are slim. Shelley is a Porter/Shiver insider, Williams, Hodge and Maldonado are non starters so that leaves Nazy Sierra as the best choice for Vice Mayor under all scenarios except a Bell win.
Nazy as the best choice. I think not. Have you looked into her SUCCESS program? Getting poor folks to sign up for the program and promising them after school programs for their kids and not one out of 300 receiving a call or acceptance letter. What happened with the money??? Nazy as a rep for ABC Fundraising; does she want to get back in so that she can be Education Committee liaison and push ABC on to all the schools in Homestead? I think that's a conflict of interest...Hmmm I think there are better choices.
It's not Elvis Maldonado. That lunatic took $1,000 from time served molester Ernesto Perez and the Bentley driving wife.
Umm...Elvis, wake up dimwit.
Vote Nazy.
Bateman is toast and he is guilty. He is out of there.
In Homestead you have to think council majority. That means four definite reliable votes without concern for the fallout.
An on paper great and independent mayor can be neutered by the council four, five or even six majority members.
These candidates often seem to run with others as a slate which is why it is important to know the alliances in advance of any vote.
Bateman, Williams and Maldonado are a group. Shelley and Waldman were with that group but they have voted independently.
Shelley and Porter are likely to be a team with both having closer than close ties with Mike Marcus and if Hodge can beat Williams that group would be the three musketeers and would only need to reenlist Waldman or recruit Fairclough McCormick or both to establish a strong Steve Shiver and Mike Marcus support group.
The answer is to know who you are voting for.
Since Homestead is full of illiterate voters expect the same mess that has always been the standard operating procedure of a pay to play local government.
Exactly why Shelley should not get the vote for Vice Mayor. He will be unopposed. That means if Porter were elected, it would be Porter, Shelley, Waldman and either of Williams or Hodge for an unreformable majority.
Genius, please. To quote Dirty Harry: Lois Jones is a "legend in her own mind." She has no political traction, other than her justifiable hatred of Lynda Bell, in any Homestead community. Period.
Those of us that operate in this environment are completely ignoring her. If she gets fifty votes in the primary that would be excessive. She has no name recognition and is considered a loose cannon. I'm not sure that anyone would want her political support.
Nice lady, no juice.
A friendly heads up to mayoral-race supporters of Bell, Burgess, Jones, and Porter.
Bateman's enemies believe that they have reframed the mayor's election by their complaints to the State Attorney, the Ethics Commission, and the media. Many believe that Bateman will be arrested and do the perp walk and that they will have an easy ride to victory. I don't think so.
The tenor and tone of the race has become exceedingly vicious. If any of the above four believe that they will walk through this election without significant revelations about their past, and you know who you are, you must think again.
All bets are off. This time, because of Bateman's legal issues, it is all about opposition research and who you really are. Bateman's issues are known; no revelations there. Homestead is rife with rumor now.
Heads up. The private detectives are at work.
Thank you, Frank for that insightful peek into the Bateman campaign playbook. I think the term is deflection, where you downplay all the negatives of your own candidate and conjure up rumor and innuendo about your opponents. In grade school terminology, its " I know you are but what am I?" Taking it to the next logical conclusion, you would have us believe that if Bateman had no political enemies, none of these alleged wrongdoings would have landed on the desk of law enforcement. Sorry but that is delusional. There are too many toes stepped on and too many arms twisted for someone not to say enough is snough and take these FACTS to someone with the ability and authority to act if needed. However, I say if you have something on any of these other contenders, bring it on now so that the real race and debate can begin between real candidates rather than choke the voters of Homestead with more smokescreen platitudes. BTW it's not the fault of the Herald that your boy finally got exposed for what he is....
Jon Burgess will not run for Mayor. The race is on and the campaigns are in place. Jeff Porter and others asked Jon to run back in February, but Jon is worried about risking the two years he has left in his council seat. Wise move for him.
Steve Bateman's reputation will never be repaired. He will most certainly be arrested. When? Is the question.
Mark Bell is nothing but Lynda's pawn/puppet. She asked everyone in town to run for Mayor. They all said NO! Poor Mark was her last resort.
She doesn't care how he feels. All she cares about is her revenge on Homestead and of course, milking Homestead's CRA for her Redland Hotel.
Mark has zero business experience, has never served on a City Committee or even volunteered to work on a city project. The leadership experience he has is his role in the destruction of his church.
Jeff Porter is the only one of the three of them who has never been arrested. ( Yes, Mark was arrested in the 80's on an animal charge. ) He has served on the City Council as a Councilman and Vice Mayor for 10 years. He also served before his council day on the Panning and Zoning Board for several years.
To the Porter supporter - If you want to go back to the days of Steve Shiver as the City Manager or some type of department head on the City payroll, then Porter as Mayor will be your guy. Also add in the local sprawl Machine of his core support which I assume would Alger/Losner/Epling based on his past voting record which is available online by the way. You may want to look at that before you start your cheer leading stuff for him.
Shelley got Alger out of a Federal law suit because the stupid City Council approved the rezoning of land around the HAB which had been allowed 1 home per acre prior to it being annexed in to Homestead. Then Homestead allowed an increased density on their future land use, but Alger wanted even more then that. Shelley is most certainly a sprawl pawn. No thank you. Shelley was conveniently mute when it came to the recent Homestead annexations in to Redland as well. He seemed absolutely clueless as to any history, or if he knew, he played dumb.
Mark Bell? He has no business ownership record other then the Redland Hotel which is and was sinking. I'd like to see the source of that down payment and the proof of payments on that mortgage to the company allegedly set up by John DuBois. I'd also like to know how the CRA approved this "business" leader for a grant for a Hotel with a history of loosing money and basically existing because of grants at all local feeding troughs. That's not business leadership, it's welfare!
The Redland Hotel was purchased and renovated back 10 years ago with the help of the county. The previous owners worked to get the grant funds and it simply didn't work when they could not get enough funds to keep on going.
With the new Homestead City Hall coming along a block or so away, it should perk up the place. Turning a once thriving Main Street (or at least a strong potential for it) into a piece-meal college campus and vacant buildings is awful.
The Redland Hotel isn't on Main Street. There are brand new hotels east of US 1 in the area. Why would anyone stay at that place? What does a City Hall have to do with anything in regard to the hotel. Do you think people will eat burgers at the restaurant there knowing there's probably Pink Slime in them because Lynda Bell thinks that's okay?
What a crock. You must be another CRA recipient who cannot keep a business plan without county/city funding because it's just a bad idea or the economy stinks!
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