Shouldn’t happen

Home

Community

Editorial

Shouldn’t happen

Other Sun Publications

FREE DELIVERY!
Get Free Delivery! Request your Osceola News Gazette Today.

Login Form

2013 Osceola Health

2013 Sexual Predator Sexual Offender List sexualpredatorcover13

Windows on the Classroom March 2013

School Calendar
2012-2013

View our other Special Sections

Shouldn’t happen

Opinions

Friday, 29 October 2010 09:20

Shame on Osceola County School Board district 5 candidate John McKay for not demanding that his supporters keep his party affiliation off a recent mailer put out by Floridians for Fiscal Responsibility, an electioneering communications organization run by McKay’s political consultant, Millennium Consulting Inc.
The mailer – paid for by McKay supporters – prominently touted the candidate’s party credentials in what should be a nonpartisan race. While state law bans mention of party by candidates in a nonpartisan campaign, electioneering communications organizations, or ECOs, are not bound by that same requirement.
McKay said he neither paid for nor approved the mailer but was “aware of it.” He also said his volunteers, while knocking on doors, were often asked about his party affiliation and that they felt it was necessary to communicate that fact.
That’s pretty lame. First of all, McKay could have instructed his volunteers to tell voters that the School Board race is nonpartisan (per a 1998 amendment to the Florida Constitution) and that party affiliation should not be an issue in the race. Secondly, you can’t tell us he wasn’t asked in advance about the third-party mailer and that he could have requested that his supporters keep party affiliation out of it.
The injection of politics into this campaign by a third party is a calculated political move intended to garner votes. While legal, it doesn’t make it right. We hope that one day our legislators require ECOs be bound by the same rule as candidates when it comes to nonpartisan races. In addition, any mailer or advertisement should require a disclaimer that says it was approved by a candidate.
Using an ECO to send out third-party mailers also is a backdoor way for a candidate’s supporters to circumvent the $500 per election per candidate limit on donations. This loophole needs to be closed.
The injection of party into this race didn’t start with the Floridians for Fiscal Responsibility mailer. Months ago and before the Aug. 24 primary, we were invited to a political forum for School Board candidates hosted by a local women’s group affiliated with one of the major political parties. When we asked which candidates were invited to the forum, we were told only those from the group’s political party would be attending. This is the kind of thinking that allows party politics to get into nonpartisan races.