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What You Missed This Week in La Gaceta
To read the full endorsements for each race, click here.
La Gaceta Endorsements
U.S. Senate
Democrat
Alex Vindman
U.S. Congress
District 12
Democrat
Darren McAuley
District 15
Christopher Irizarry
and Robert People
Governor/Lt. Governor
Democrat
David Jolly/Gwen Graham
Republican
Byron Donalds
Chief Financial Officer
Democrat
Earle Ford
Republican
Frank William Collige
Commissioner of Agriculture Democrat
No endorsement
Republican
Wilton Simpson
State Senate
Democrat
District 16-Universal Primary
Fentrice Driskell
State Representative
Universal Primary
District 62-Universal Primary
Kyandra Darling
District 63-Universal Primary
Jacqueline Coffie-Leeks, Robin Lockett and Conrad Schupay
District 64
Democrat
Luis Salazar
Republican
Dan Weldon
County Commission
District 3
Democrat
District 5
Republican
Donna Cameron Cepeda
Gwen Myers
District 7
Aileen Rodriguez
Circuit Judge, 13th Circuit
Nonpartisan
Group 7
Sara Peacock
Group 13
Jim Wimsatt
School Board
Nonpartisan
District 2
Daniela Simic
District 6
Karen Perez
From As We Heard It, by Patrick Manteiga
► Endorsements
State Representative
District 64
Republican
There are three names on the ballot, Amaro Lionheart, Angel Ramos and Dan Weldon. Lionheart has withdrawn from the race, so a vote for him will not count.
Angel Ramos was born in Puerto Rico and made the move to Tampa much later in life. He’s had a varied work history, ranging from programmer, marketing strategist, entertainment and private investigation. His positions show that he wants to protect students from indoctrination at public schools that is not happening. He supports removing vaccine mandates for children.
Dan Weldon is a former prosecutor and currently a litigation lawyer. He played for the UF football team and was statewide chair of the College Republicans of Florida.
He wrote to the Tampa Bay Times, “The cost of having and raising children is at an all-time high. Job opportunities for young people are some of the worst they’ve ever been … our future is being left behind.”
It’s a pretty bleak viewpoint for a conservative activist considering his party controls the Federal and State governments. Trump says, under his regime, that America is great – it’s thriving.
We endorse Weldon in this race. He seems to be more informed and probably less conservative than he thinks he is.
County Commission
District 5
Republican
Stacy Hahn is a School Board member trying to graduate to County Commission. She’s never impressed us on the School Board. She refused to hold the superintendent and other top staffers accountable for accepting a gift, a trip to Augusta National , from a vendor. She is pushing for tax cuts but has accepted in her PAC a $5,000 contribution from Ken Babby so she is happy to write a big tax dollar check to the Tampa Bay Rays. While on the School Board, she was paid to lure public school students to go to charter and private schools, which undermines our public schools.
Incumbent County Commissioner Donna Cameron Cepeda opposed the Rays deal, especially using CIT dollars, which is a plus in our eyes.
She is for using limited tax dollars to improve roads and other critical infrastructure. She is consistent in that voting.
We endorse Cepeda in the Republican primary.
Circuit Judge
13th Judicial Circuit
Group 7
This race has two qualified candidates who are personable. Luis “Louie” Aguila is a native. His family owned the La Ideal Sandwich Shop in West Tampa. He was assistant state attorney under Mark Ober, Andrew Warren and Suzy Lopez. He is now with the statewide prosecutor’s office and handles cases in several counties. He has over a decade of legal experience.
Our pick is Sara Peacock. Peacock has 15 years of legal experience in criminal defense, family law and civil litigation. Her mother has been a judge for years, so she knows what the job entails. She is involved in her community, the Bar and in improving the legal profession. We think she’ll make a great judge.
Group 13
The public can’t go wrong in this race where Nina McGucken Alvarez and Jim Wimsatt are vying for votes.
McGucken Alvarez has 17 years of experience in the areas of family law, probate, guardianship. She is assistant regional counsel and represents indigent clients with developmental disabilities. She’s been a sole practitioner much of her career. She is a third-generation Tampeña. She operates with honesty and integrity.
Jim Wimsatt has practiced for 22 years, focused on family law. He is with Harris Hunt & Derr PA. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell. His community service involves Metropolitan Ministries, Trinity Cafe and the Community Food Pantry. He is a Georgetown University Law Center graduate. Wimsatt is passionate about the law and fair.
It’s a close call. We will endorse Wimsatt, who has more years of experience and a history of community service.
(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. …(
