As the fall decorations begin to trickle into the stores, it still feels like summer in Jacksonville, Florida...

The summer of 1959, maybe. 

Long before State Senator Jim King died as a result of pancreatic cancer, John Thrasher had his eye on his seat. Thrasher had announced this past spring that he would run for the term limit restricted seat in the Florida senate.

 
John Thrasher

Because Florida loves a good dirty campaign, local Republican Dan Quiggle threw his hat in the ring along with perpetual candidate Stan Jordan (a current school board member) and Art Graham, who is a city council member. After several months of tiresome political television ads (“Paid for by The Citizens Urging the New Testament For All County Employees Committee”) Thrasher finally beat Quiggle in the special election primary.

 
That's me with Stan Jordan on Election Day 2008.

After all the mud-slinging and accusations of posh business trips to Texas to buy desks, I thought the controversy was over. Thrasher is nothing new, after all – he served as Speaker from 1998-2000 and is a lobbyist for the Southern Strategy Group. The SSG represents small, mom & pop interests like the Florida Hospital Association and… Disney. Anyone shocked by his landslide victory hasn’t been living here long.

However, after the race ended, some serious allegations popped up in our local media. Thrasher’s campaign has been accused of making hundreds of harassing automated phone calls to voters while pretending to be from the Quiggle campaign and filming Dan Quiggle’s house to show two prominent trial lawyers emerging from a meeting with Quiggle. This is nothing new in Florida, but I’m afraid this latest election has brought us to a new low.

I will not tell you what I, or others, think that this mailing means. I will simply tell you that it was sent out by a group called “The Conservative Voters’ Coalition” and, perhaps unrelatedly(?) our councilmember Art Graham who ran for the same seat is African-American.

This is the front of the mailer:

 



Just in case you have a hard time reading it, the smaller text says:

"President Obama let the Black Panthers get a free pass for intimidating voters on Election Day. ACORN, moveon.org and the Black Panthers may be at your polling place on September 15. Armed thugs may try and scare you away from the voting booth. Do not let intimidation and threats of violence against you keep you from exercising your constitutional right to vote."

This is the back side of the mailing:

 
It's an absentee voting ballot request.

I already vote absentee on non-Presidential years... let's see what that ballot looks like:


 





Those are the choices, folks. I'm thinking of voting for Jello Biafra.

As they say down at the Convention and Visitors Bureau – “This Is Jacksonville – Where Florida Begins.”