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What You Missed This Week in La Gaceta
La Gaceta Endorses
(To read our full endorsement articles, click here)
U.S. Senate
Angie Nixon
U.S. Congress
District 12
Kimberly Overman
District 14
Kathy Castor
District 15
Robert People
Governor
David Jolly
Attorney General
Jose Javier Rodriguez
Chief Financial Officer
Annette Tadeo
Commissioner of Agriculture
Joey Mendoza Atkins
State Senate
District 14
Brian Nathan
District 20
Gerald Baldi
State Representative
District 64
Luis Salazar
District 65
Karen Gonzalez Pittman
District 66
Jose “Dante” Sanchez Sanchez
District 67
Luis Viera
District 68
Tony Smith
District 70
Michael Owen
County Commission
District 1
Harry Cohen
District 3
Gwen Myers
District 6
Neil Manimala
District 7
Aileen Rodriguez
School Board District 2
Daniela Simic
School Board District 6
Karen Perez
Temple Terrace City Council
Karen Michalski, Alison Fernandez, Eugene Papantoniou
Amendment 1 – No
Amendment 2 – No
Amendment 3 – No
Referendum 1 – No
Referendum 2 – Yes
Referendum 3 – Yes
Supreme Court
Retain Justice Carols Muñiz
No
Second District Court of Appeal
Retain Drew Atkinson
No
Retain Morris Silberman
Yes
Retain Daniel Sleet
Yes
Retain Andrea Teves Smith
Yes
From As We Heard It, by Patrick Manteiga
► Endorsements
Congress
The Republican-controlled congress has failed to defend its constitutional powers. It has failed to rein in the president. It has chosen loyalty to Trump and partisan politics over individual members own sense at patriotism and duty to the Constitution. Whether the member is a moderate or an ultra-conservative, their actions are the same. They let Trump make the rules. They let Trump break the rules. They let Trump abuse and misuse our government. It’s a huge disappointment as we have lost respect for individual members as they shun their duty and their oaths.
The Republican Congress has let Trump freeze, redirect and withhold congressionally authorized funding for programs agencies and projects. They allow him to threaten individual states with withholding funds because they have majority Democratic governments. They let him eliminate and restructure federal agencies that only Congress has the right to change. They fail to restrain military actions that are unreasonable, risky and imperialistic. They have watched while he has removed inspector generals and replaced some with loyalists, leading to illegal spending, uncompetitive contracts and misappropriations and stealing tax money. While over time congress has ceded much of its power to set and collect, tariffs, taxes, duties and excises, this Congress has allowed Trump unusual control of tariffs that has caused financial harm to America and the loss of international support of prestige of America. Our disappointment of the Republican-controlled Congress sets an overall theme to my next three endorsements. So long as congressmembers choose Trump over America, we will choose to replace them.
Incumbent Republican Gus Bilirakis is an example of our frustration. He is a moderate, a genuinely nice guy and he is not a wild-eyed culture war warrior, but he won’t buck Trump. Our pick for Congress District 12 is Kimberly Overman.
She is a former county commissioner, a financial planner and a grandmother who is raising her grandson. She understands the financial strain many Americans are experiencing and the need for a social safety net that is getting shredded by this president.
She supports expanding healthcare, and mental health care, restoring women’s right to choose, sensible gun laws, environmental protection and addressing climate change. She also offers to focus as much on veterans’ needs as Bilirakis has.
The Republicans have used redistricting to undermine Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor’s long-term hold on her district and they are pouring in millions to unseat her.
Castor has been a steady, effective advocate for her district and has brought home needed money for infrastructure. Our airport’s and port’s improvements can be traced back to her. Tampa Family Health Center’s growth is due to her support. Due to Castor, the Crosstown Connector received one of the largest single distributions of money nationwide from the American recovery and reinvestment act – $105 million. She added another $200 million to it from federal transportation funds. She is pushing for health care affordability, relief from high utility bills, protecting Social Security, creating high-paying jobs and protecting unions, clean energy and keeping oil drilling off Tampa Bay’s shores.
Her opponent, Mike Beltran, has shown independence in the past and is approachable, but during the primary he promoted that he stood with Trump every step of the way. As we have written, that path has led us to the cliff.
La Gaceta strongly endorses Kathy Castor for Congress District 14.
Republican Congresswoman Laurel Lee is another Republican we respect. She is smart, moderate and approachable, but she will not tell Emperor Trump that he has no clothes.
Democrat Robert People is a 21-year U.S. Army veteran who wants to raise the federal minimum wage, reduce our electric costs, put a moratorium on data center construction. He wants to protect unions, Medicare for all, return reproductive rights to women and reform of ICE.
La Gaceta endorses Robert People for Congress District 15.
Attorney General
If we could get our Republican friends and readers to follow just one of our endorsements, it would be this one. Current Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier is a danger to Florida. He lacks the moral compass to hold his job. He practices attorney general activism by undermining, creating or modifying Florida laws by his actions or lack of actions. He has declared longstanding Florida laws invalid or unconstitutional by his own bizarre legal interpretations. He has funneled money from the nonprofit Hope Florida to a PAC he controlled to spend money on political advertising. He fights the culture war against gays, Blacks, Hispanics, liberals, Muslims, women, immigrants, professors and unions on a daily basis as if these people are the enemy and not fellow Floridians. He forced the University of Florida to pay him $100,000 to teach a class at UF, even though he should not be allowed to be closed rooms with young impressionable minds. He is the worst officeholder in Florida and that is saying a lot. Please, please, please vote against this bad person.
The Democratic challenger Jose Javier “J.J.” Rodriguez is a Harvard grad who started his career as a legal aid attorney focusing on low-income workers’ rights and fighting against wage theft. He later represented labor unions. He served in the Florida House for four years and in the Florida Senate for four years. He was also the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor under Biden. The cherry on top is that he was in the Peace Corps as a young man and volunteered in Senegal. We love someone who wants to help the powerless over the powerful.
Rodriguez is the opposite of Uthmeier. It’s a choice between good and evil. We choose good.
La Gaceta strongly endorses Jose Javier Rodriguez for attorney general.
Chief Financial Officer
Republican Blaise Ingoglia is a failed CFO who has shirked his fiduciary duty to Florida and its taxpayers. He has failed to protect taxpayers against state government waste. He has stood by while the governor spent money on no-bid contracts for Alligator Alcatraz and other boondoggles. Much of the expenses had little paper back up to support that the work that was done and that it was properly invoiced. He has made stupid remedial audits of local governments that are not done with standards. They are political stunts. He has voted for land giveaways and overspending on land that benefits Governor DeSantis’ friends and donors. He is a friend to Big Insurance and a foe to Florida’s consumers. Blaise couldn’t audit a cigarette machine.
Democrat Annette Taddeo’s background is as a small business owner for 30 years and as a Florida state senator. She served on the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, which is good training ground for CFO. She will be a fighter for Florida’s consumers and an ally in the fight to lower the cost of insurance.
La Gaceta endorses Annette Tadeo for CFO.
Commissioner of Agriculture
We’d like the incumbent Republican Wilton Simpson, but as a member of the Florida Cabinet, he has rubber stamped some of the governor’s worst deals and ideas. He voted without any evidence to designate 90 groups as terrorist organizations. He voted to overpay a developer $83.3 million for four acres. He voted for swapping 324 acres of a state forest so a golf course could be built there and he voted to basically give away 100 acres of land to the Tampa Bay Rays. La Gaceta endorses Democrat Joey Mendoza Atkins for commissioner of agriculture.
The bigger role of the commissioner of agriculture isn’t agriculture, its consumer protection and Atkins has strong qualifications as an attorney who started his career in legal aid helping migrant farm workers and DACA recipients. He wants to be a watchdog to protect our natural resources and fight against consumer fraud.
County Commission
District 1
Democrat Harry Cohen is being challenged by former State Representative Jackie Toledo, who is Republican. Harry Cohen is a thoughtful and engaged public servant. He works well with staff and his peers on the Commission. On the Republican-dominated Commission, he has helped to soften extreme proposals. He wants to manage development, support more transportation infrastructure and deliver county services efficiently along with supporting social services and the arts.
Toledo was quick to embrace divisive politics and embrace the culture war. She has had ethics violations, been involved in ugly campaigns and seems to attract controversy.
Cohen provides calm, experienced and ethical leadership.
La Gaceta endorses Harry Cohen for County Commission District 1.
District 3
Democratic incumbent County Commissioner Gwen Myers offers comprehensive institutional knowledge of Hillsborough County government. She worked for the County for 25 years, and as County Commissioner for almost six years.
She is a strong unapologetic advocate for the Black community and her district, which has some of the county’s poorest populations. She is a strong supporter of our social safety net, affordable housing, mass transit and parks and rec.
Her opponent, Louis F.F. Garcia, has not run much of a campaign.
La Gaceta endorses Gwen Myers for County Commission.
District 6
This is a now an open seat. Republican Stacy Hahn, who is currently a school board member, defeated incumbent Republican County Commissioner Donna Cameron Cepeda in the primary. Hahn got a lot of backing from the Rays on her defeat of Cepeda.
Democrat Neil Manimala is the best choice and our endorsement for District 6. He is a urologist practicing in east Hillsborough County and the president of the Hillsborough County Medical Association. He grew up in Valrico.
He wants to protect the County’s health care plan, solve flooding problems, fight sprawl, expand child care access and affordable housing. Manimala is smart, easy to talk to and hard working. Having a doctor on the Commission will add a unique voice to the discussions.
District 7
Republican incumbent Joshua Wostal is being challenged by Democrat Aileen Rodriguez. Wostal is laser-focused on targeting as much County money as possible on transportation infrastructure. He is a fiscal watchdog and was our hero in his fight against the over generous taxpayer giveaway to the Tampa Bay Rays. He has the tendency to be overly harsh, quick to judge and argumentative to staff, his peers on council and constitutional officers.
Aileen Rodriguez has a lot better temperament for the County Commission and public service. She would be the first Hispanic with a Hispanic last name to hold a county wide Commission seat. She was born in Puerto Rico but was raised here. She was a Republican early in life and served on the staff of U.S. Senator Mel Martinez. She switched to Democrat in 2019, saying the GOP no longer reflected her values as a Christian. She wants to focus on child care, public transportation, affordable housing. She wants to move costs of growth to developers and preserve some of our remaining green spaces.
La Gaceta endorses Aileen Rodriguez for County Commission District 7.
Temple Terrace City Council
There are five candidates competing for three openings on the council.
Our top choice is Karen Michalski, a chemist and an environmental advocate. The City of Temple Terrace is spending money on its water treatment plant and needs to deploy additional infrastructure to reduce PFAS in the water. Her knowledge would serve the Council well in deciding the best way forward.
Our next choice is Allison Fernandez, who is the only incumbent seeking re-election. She is an accountant and former financial auditor who is a long time resident of Temple Terrace. Her skill set is a good fit on Council, as is her experience.
To round out the top three, we endorsed Eugene Papantoniou, who is a small business owner and pharmacist. He, like all the candidates in the race, are mostly pleased with Temple Terrace government and staff. He wants to see the downtown redevelopment continue and the city to wisely invest in improving its drinking water quality.
Also running is Amber Treat, who is very involved in the Temple Terrace community and Ryan Gessman.
State Representative
District 69
State Rep Danny Alvarez, who is Republican, pushes the typical Republican agenda. He is intolerant of people who believe in changing U.S.-Cuba policy and has been ugly to local officials if they show any openness to learning about Cuba politics. We are sure he thinks we are communists. We think he is less than adequate for his job.
Democratic Socialist Ashley Elizabeth Herrmann is for vaccinations, higher wages, stronger public schools and returning local control over zoning, land use and regulation of development.
While we don’t agree with some of Herrmann’s agenda, we agree a lot more with her than Alvarez. It would certainly frost Alvarez to be defeated by a Democratic Socialist.
La Gaceta endorses Ashley Elizabeth Herrmann for State Representative District 69(to read more, buy a paper)
From Chairman of the Bored, by Gene Siudut
► For nearly a decade, Jeanine Pirro has been one of Donald Trump’s most dependable public defenders. First as the host of her own weekend show on Fox News, “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” and later as a co-host of “The Five,” she used her highly rated television pulpit to reframe his deepest legal complications into straightforward battles of good versus bad.
Think Judge Judy with more influence and no moral compass.
Yet the nature of that relationship fundamentally shifted when the president appointed her as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Suddenly, the battle moved from the consequence-free arena of cable television to a federal office with actual statutory boundaries. And that new reality has now collided with a wall over something as inconsequential as the National Mall’s Reflecting Pool. …(to read more, buy a paper)
From O’Pionions to Go, by Joe O’Neill
► Cog Test: More hand-bruise speculation. More embarrassing, high-profile nodding off. Another “aced” cognition test. We’ve seen this presidential pattern; we’ll see it again. And again.
But we haven’t, until now, actually seen the Trump cognition test. Some likely samples: Solve Hocus-Focus, count backwards from 3, name the day of the week, current century, two SCOTUS justices, three NATO members and the main ingredients of a cheeseburger.
Atorvastatin, Azerbaijan, Acetaminaphen: Which one is a country? What is Stormy Daniels real name? Name two books other than “Art of the Deal” and “Mein Kampf,” that you have read. What is Melania’s phone number?
Party of Lincoln: How can Republicans still maintain that their party is “the party of Lincoln”? Shouldn’t these Lincoln Day Dinners be realistically renamed? How about the Bull Connor or George Wallace Day Dinners? Stop using Lincoln as a disingenuous, hypocritical model. …(to read more, buy a paper)
From In Context, by Doris Weatherford
► I see that the Justice Department is suing Harvard, again. Again, the suit is about what the Trump administration sees as Harvard’s failure to release complete data on its admission process. Let’s get this straight: Harvard is a private entity, not a public one. It has been private since 1636. (Yes, that is a 400th anniversary coming up soon, as opposed to the 250th anniversary of the United States.) It is operated by a board elected by its alumni and has no legal reason to respond to the demands of Agent Orange.
In the interest of transparency, though, there is one admission record I’d like to see: did young Donnie apply back in 1964, when he instead went to Fordham, a much inferior Catholic school in New York City? If his snit with Harvard is based on rejection, was Daddy’s promised donation insufficient to bend Harvard’s high standards? Or was he a victim of the discrimination against white men that Harvard historically upheld? Yes, I’m being sarcastic: it was impossible for a woman of any color or even wealth to enter as an undergraduatethe college back then. Not until 1977 were Harvard’s admissions “gendersex-blind.” Color-blindness came in the 70’s as well.And my daughter still is angry that her 1995 diploma credits Radcliffe equally with Harvard. …(to read more, buy a paper)
From Silhouettes, an interview with Bill Weber, by Tiffany Razzano
► For more than four decades, Bill Weber has built a career around mobility and independence.
Since opening his Tampa-area business in the early 1980s, Weber has helped many people —from aging adults to injured veterans and people living with disabilities—find the wheelchairs, scooters and wheelchair-accessible vehicles that allow them to continue working, traveling and living on their own terms. …(to read more, buy a paper)
From Líneas de la memoria, por Gabriel Cartaya
► La doctora Madeline Cámara, profesora en la Universidad del Sur de la Florida por varios años, reconocida como crítica literaria y autora de varios libros, me acaba de enviar unas líneas suyas inspiradas en El secreto de la andaluza. Las comparto con los atentos lectores de “Líneas de la memoria”, muchos de los cuales han leído esta novela, concebida en el mismo tiempo en que escribimos las breves líneas semanales de La Gaceta. … (to read more, buy a paper)
From Briznas culturales, por Leonardo Venta
► En el texto La invención de España: literatura y nacionalismo, su autor, E. Inman Fox, hace un análisis de España hacia finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, cuando el país se encontraba en-vuelto en una transición hacia la industrialización. Esta transición vino aparejada con un cambio en la estructura social definida por la consolidación de la clase media adinerada, una emergente y organizada clase trabajadora, y por consiguiente la oscilante pequeña burguesía.
Por otro lado, la estructura política, caracterizada por la ineficiencia administrativa, un corrupto sistema electoral, un 75 por ciento de la población analfabeta, y un anacrónico sistema educati-vo, no permitió que en España se consolidara una democracia capitalista al mismo nivel que el resto de Europa. …(
