City Council Congratulations

[FCTP]

The Mayor's Race had its own blog this morning and we did not want to miss the hearty congratulations to those who won City Council seats.

 

We informed the City Council members who voted to raise our taxes that we would see them at the polls. 

 

Last night our endorsed candidate, Matt Schellenberg (R) in City Council District 6 took the seat away from Jack Webb, the City Council President who was leading the city council when our taxes were raised.  The results were:  53% to 47% - a clear victory.

 

CONGRATULATIONS MATT

 

 

We also stood with those who did NOT raise our taxes and voted against their peers.  Clay Yarborough, City Council District 1, was laughed at by some on the city council when he raised questions and voted No on the tax increase.  He WON his re-election by 57.7% to 42.3%.

 

CONGRATULATIONS CLAY

 

All those who voted NO to Raise our Taxes won their seats back on the City Council either in the primary or last night.  We are pleased with this outcome.

 

Michael Corrigan termed out and decided to run for Tax Collector.  He DID vote to raise taxes and received a negative endorsement from us.  He won last night and we are sad about that outcome.  A message to Mr. Corrigan, "We will be watching you and expecting a well run Tax Collectors office or you will be hearing from us."

 

On a side note: 

We did NOT endorse in the City Council at Large 5 race.  Robin Lumb (R) won by 58% to 42% against Donald Foy (NPA) with more than 98,814 votes.  Robin beat out both mayoral candidates with votes cast.  Just an interesting statistic for a race that got no attention from the Obama out-of-towners and had little money.  Not sure what it means and we'll let you decide. 

 

 

The City Council has been reformed and will have huge political power.  We will be engaged with the City Council members to ensure they hold our Mayor to conservative values and votes. 

 

If you are interested in serving on the City Council Accountability Team of the First Coast Tea Party, please contact our office at [phone] and put your name on the list.  If you want to be a part of holding our city leaders accountable, this is the place to do that.

 

Again, Congrats to the winners.  Get some rest.  You'll need it!

 

 

[J. Lo]

Matt you proved that by hard work, morals, ethics, civility, and good manners, the best man can still win!

You are an inspiration to us all.

Thanks to all those who stood their ground against the hostility and ugliness from the other side.

 

GOOD LUCK!

[Roberto Hurstez]

Not Exactly Odd: just prior to the election I commented here about Mike Hogan's promotional blunders and apparent failure to excite the voters....But the post was CENSORED/REMOVED  by the TEA PARTY monitors.  Perhaps I should mention my advertising/marketing background?..... At 56 I'm 80% retired (work one day a week) though financially I need not work at all.  I own free and clear properties in both Southampton NY and Jacksonville..

 After twice being CENSORED here, my feeling is the Jacksonville TEA PARTY is about as closed minded as can be and that is sad.  I have an ability to predict which businesses will fail often due to know-it-all owners that don't have a clue what they are doing and fail to heed warnings.   I take pride in looking at both progressive and conservative side.  All I can say is how stupid it is to turn a blind eye to critisism especially when the stakes are so high.

[Shann and Matt Cohrs]

Congrats to Matt for his win...

[J.R.]

By the way, I'd also like to congratulate Clay Yarborough for his success in getting re-elected and appreciate his conservative votes and record. And, I supported him, in large part because I remembered from the protest rally and attendance at the City Council meeting where the majority of Council members voted to raise our taxes, Councilman Yarborough voted "NO." He has consistently voted as a conservative and certainly earned the confidence of the citizens who voted to return him to City Council. 

[Colleen White]

How about congratulations to everyone who tirelessly worked!

You go tea party members!

[J.R.]

If you want to know the facts about Robin Lumb, who won an At-Large seat on the Jacksonville City Council, here is a link to his website, http://votelumb.com/, that clearly shows his bona fides, many relevant and important endorsements for City Council, and all the organizations and Republican causes he has participated in and led.  To me, it's impressive, and I personally endorsed and voted for him.

I recently spoke with Robin Lumb while a volunteer at The Landing on Tax Day. He was working the crowd hard to meet and communicate with voters and came across to me as a conservative. As a small business owner, he's actively involved with other small business owners in Jacksonville, and as an at-large candidate, necessarily had to campaign in all areas of Jacksonville, which would be a rational reason for his having gotten such a high percentage of the vote.

It's highly unlikely that, with his long-term conservative background and service in the Republican Party and this county, that he will turn out to be anything other than a conservative in office. I will continue to support him as such, in the absence of evidence to the contrary.  He has earned the right to be congratulated for such a comprehensive campaign outreach and overwhelming victory in his race, as a Republican, for a seat on the City Council. 

[James Kring]

Much as I would like to do a rant on the the indignities the opposition subjected the Matt Schellenburg campaign to, I refrain. Let the deliciousness of the success for Matt speak for itself, knowing that somewhere, this morning, there is a puppy,  licking it's wounds, after biting the ankle of a grown man.

Thanks to Debbie G. and Jack Webb for involving me in the Matt campaign, without them I couldn't have had this experience of jubilation.

So, I will say no more,.............. well,....... maybe just one thing, in response to Joe's signage stating "Matt doesn't know Jack about the issues", let's adjust that to read  "Jack doesn't know Jack about Matt"!!

That would look great towed behind a plane!

[C.B. "Cork" Motsett]

I add my congratulations to Matt and the others. I'm hopeful common sense will be the new guideline for all City business.

[Debbie G]

This was just the first step in "CLEANING HOUSE" in Jacksonville.  Intimidation, denigrating, hostility, and other such characteristics seemingly are ubiquitous among "politicians" and their supporters.  All the time we spent sign waving, A LOT, we noticed a pattern of behavior that differentiated Webb supporters from Schellenberg supporters. 

Webb supporters, mostly, gave the finger and/or shouted obscenities, this included children, at Schellenberg supporters.

Schellenberg supporters, mostly, had no reaction towards the Webb supporters other than an occasional shake of the head.

Case in point - this morning Jim Kring and I were out waving "thank you for voting" signs on Old St. Augustine Road when a woman drove past in a minivan shouting "you ran a dirty campaign" along with other expletives I couldn't discern.  While this is her view, it does demonstrate just how "uneducated" people are on the facts.

 

Another interesting observation: On Monday May 16, I was standing along side Jack Webb on the corner of Loretto and Old St. Augustine road holding my "higher taxes and fees = Webb" sign.  A woman stopped at the light rolled down her window and asked me about it, so I explained the ordinances that increased our cost of living.  She replied, "So who should I vote for?"  I stated, "It is your choice" and at the same time Jack Webb stated, "Vote for me."  She looked at both of us, turned to me and responded, "Good answer."  Once again it appears integrity won over arrogance.

[Patricia M. McBride]

Great news isn't it.  Robin Lumb had a massive campaign to get voters out that don't normally vote.  Too bad they didn't use the same approach or make Mike Hogan the focus of such a campaign!