Andrew Gillum has Florida's vote ... by gimleteye

Florida Democratic candidate for Governor Andrew Gillum chooses Chris King as running mate. Both advocate changing state laws that turned Florida's waters into toxic sacrifice zones for Big Sugar profits

Here is an important interview with Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for governor, standing at the polluted shore of Florida's tourism-dependent west coast.

At min. 5:36 of this interview shared on Facebook, Andrew Gillum calls for eminent domain, a legitimate government purpose to take land for fair market value for a critical public purpose: to build sufficient storage and treatment marshes to avoid spewing toxic waters from Lake Okeechobee -- waters made toxic by decades of Big Sugar farm runoff -- into the Everglades, into the Caloosahatchee, and the St. Lucie rivers.

https://www.facebook.com/andrewgillumfl/videos/316675085827506/UzpfSTIxNDQ4MDUzODcwMzY2NzoxMTUyNTIxMTU4MjMyOTI5/

Here is a FACT: in 2017 the Republican majority in the Florida legislature and Gov. Rick Scott (who wants your vote to be next US Senator) turned the Everglades reservoir bill -- to cost at least $2 billion -- into a Trojan Horse for Big Sugar's purposes: block eminent domain.

If that $2 billion had been used to close the 2010 deal to put US Sugar Corporation lands into public ownership, we would be nearly a decade closer to fixing the state's pollution crisis. But we aren't because Rick Scott and a Republican legislature claimed doing so was "too expensive", not important enough, and "extreme".

Tell that to businesses, visitors and residents (many of whom are Republicans!) whose quality of life, property values, and opinion of Florida is turning to shit like Florida waters.

It is going to take a new Democratic majority and a Democratic governor to undo tragic mistakes made by Rick Scott and the GOP, stretching back decades.

Why, tragic mistakes? Because today Rick Scott and his supporters support another dirty scheme: to pump billions of gallons of toxic water deep underground in a scheme that serves only one purpose: make well drillers, engineers, and lobbyists very rich. They even have a marketing tested name for this idiocy: "estuary protection wells". BULLSHIT.

It's another scam by Big Sugar to wring the last penny of profit from former Everglades wetlands until they can repurpose those lands as zero lot line housing, strip malls, inland ports, and power plants. Billionaire polluters have wrecked the state of Florida, and only voters can change that outcome.

Andrew Gillum gets it. Let's hope Florida voters finally get it too.


(Read more about eminent domain and Big Sugar, here.)