Challengers have a steep climb

A mile. No, make that two.

That’s the approximate distance between the quality of incumbents vs. challengers in at least two of the three County Commission races.
​
Monday night was my first chance to see District 1 combatants Jeff Kinnard and Curtiss “CJ” Bryant together at the Citrus Trump Club 47 forum in Lecanto.

---

Also, District 3’s Ruthie Davis Schlabach and Janet Barek were there. Ruthie is everything I want in an incumbent. Janet is everything I detest in a challenger.

Let’s get to it.

First off, I’m not including District 5 today. Commissioner Holly Davis wasn’t there, and who could blame her if she decided to stay home and watch the Stanley Cup Finals.

This is Jesse “Sedition Panda” Rumson’s group. The Trump Club gives Jesse a home-field advantage with a large banner supporting his campaign. I didn’t hang around to hear his vision for Citrus County. Maybe next time.

So, for what it’s worth:

— Curtiss “CJ” Bryant is a smart guy who could probably help the community in some way. I doubt this is it.

I had high hopes for CJ when we had our Cattle Dog chat in February. This is what I wrote about him then:

“So far, Bryant is leading my ‘candidate most likely to be a viable candidate’ competition by a long shot.”

I was so looking forward to CJ firing up the campaign wagon explaining how his vision differs from Commissioner Kinnard, who’s been in office for eight years.

Instead, well, no nice way to say this, so I won’t. It’s just not there.

A sampling of my CJ notes from Monday night (I’m paraphrasing):

• Lack of experience is a good thing.
• Most people favor term limits.
• I’m not taking donations from developers.
• We’ve wasted money by delaying projects.
• Consultants are another waste of money.

And on it went. Your basic color-by-numbers campaign. The format allowed candidates 15 minutes to speak. FIFTEEN MINUTES! Not a single hint of vision from CJ. No idea what this candidate wants to do if elected. 

— Not going to say much about Jeff Kinnard, other than he sure walked and talked like a two-term incumbent.

From my Kinnard notes:

• Build relationships in Tallahassee, big money for local projects.
• We’ve approved many developments, turned some down.
• Taxes are low; bond rating sky high.
• The county staff is smaller than it was in 2008.
• Within a year, expect the announcement of a third hospital in Citrus County.

I’ve said before that Jeff is vulnerable as an incumbent. Many of his pro-development votes are unpopular. Citizens are rightly concerned about the future game plan.

But Jeff clearly knows what he’s doing. At this moment, he looks fairly safe.

— Janet Barek is best known as the cantankerous Citrus Springs woman constantly at board meetings berating county commissioners.

To her great credit, she decided to run for office. Put up or shut up, that kind of thing. I admire that tenacity.

But my admiration ends there. Janet has an earned reputation for repeating whoppers. “Janet, you know that’s not true” is spoken at least once by a commissioner just about every time she speaks.

Some Janet notes:

• Consultants waste money.
• Residential road resurfacing is a mess.
• Why don’t we fix our buildings?
• EMS has bad response times.

I can’t stand it when candidates exaggerate, mislead, fumble answers, or flat-out make up stuff on the spot. It’s easy to tell. Lots of rhetoric with little behind it.

— Ruthie Davis Schlabach. Let me just say this. You don’t want to mess with her.

I’ll skip through her speech and get to the good stuff. John “Library Guy” Labriola, who was sitting near the front of the room, rattled off some criticism of Ruthie and asked her to explain herself. Instead, Ruthie gave him the stink eye and called him out.

Again, paraphrasing:

• This gentleman says women who get breast cancer most likely deserve it. I’m not giving this gentleman any time. I will continue to fight you and your lies.

A few people applauded. I cannot explain how satisfying that was, sitting in the back of the room watching this incumbent commissioner, a breast cancer survivor, stare down a bully in his own backyard.

(Someone in attendance sent me a text after I left. Library Guy apparently had a meltdown when Ruthie produced a video of him making the offending remarks.)

Still a ways before the Aug. 20 primary. Anything can happen. From what I’ve seen though, incumbents Kinnard and Schlabach look like slam dunks.

Join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Enjoying the blog? Please consider supporting it at Venmo, PayPal, or Patreon.