Thursday, February 20, 2014

State Democrats bankrolling challengers in Wellington Village...

This is a disturbing trend regardless of your political stripes. Local municipal elections are supposed to be nonpartisan for a reason. I always maintain that both Democrats and Republicans need their trash picked up on time and deserve the same quality of municipal services as anyone else. Party politics can get in the way of doing the right thing for your constituency. And now there is the question of just how much money is involved here. Click title for link.
The Florida Democratic Party is partly bankrolling the campaigns of challengers Sharon Lascola for Seat 2 and Matt Kurit for Seat 3.
Critics — namely the incumbents, Councilwoman Anne Gerwig and Vice Mayor Howard Coates — say the state party’s involvement is a way to funnel potentially unlimited dollars for the challengers’ benefit, circumventing the $1,000 cap on direct donations to the candidates.
In recent weeks, the state party has mailed out several fliers to thousands of village residents and reportedly paid for volunteers to canvass Wellington neighborhoods and drop off door hangers promoting Lascola’s and Kurit’s candidacies.
The money is putting a decidedly political bent on what’s supposed to be a nonpartisan local election.