A.G. Gancarski
In the wake of Thursday night’s debate, Mayor Alvin Brown‘s challengers head into the first weekend of early voting in Jacksonville with key endorsements.
The Southside Business Men’s Club PAC endorsed Bill Bishop Friday, while the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Lenny Curry.
“We urge the people of Jacksonville to elect Bill Bishop Jacksonville’s next mayor,” read the press release from the SBMC PAC.
One reason the PAC endorsed Bishop over his better-funded opponents was his position on fiscal matters.
Nobody wants to have their taxes raised. But the SBMC PAC believes the people of Jacksonville deserve better than a politician’s “soft” answer that ignores the problem. Truly, logic dictates that you cannot expand your homes, or your businesses, by merely cutting expenses year after year. You need to increase your revenue; the same applies to our city. To date, only one candidate has been completely honest. He may not say what we WANT to hear, but he tells us what we NEED to hear: The city can no longer afford to ignore the Police/Fire pension issue. Jacksonville needs a Mayor whose administration will move forward to tackle the major issues of today and plan for a greater future, for our city. That candidate is Bill Bishop.
The PAC initially hesitated to endorse Bishop, but a number of factors drove the SBMC PAC to endorse the councilman.
Privately we all have supported Bill in every discussion and additionally through our individual contributions. However, initially it was our intention as an organization only to address races with 2 or fewer candidates, and then make additional endorsements during the runoff. Due to the community’s strong response of support following remarks from former Mayor Delaney, Ron Littlepage, the Times-Union’s endorsement, and many more, Bishop’s numbers in the polls continue to rise. With many undecided voters still remaining, we would feel remiss if we didn’t step up and show our full support immediately.
This endorsement gives Bishop momentum as early voting continues, and helps to defray the effect of the Fraternal Order of Police endorsement of Lenny Curry Thursday, which Curry announced during the debate.
“In addition to demonstrating leadership and vision for restoring Jacksonville’s greatness, he has committed to fully support law enforcement and community leaders in their effort to eliminate crime by ensuring they have access to every resource necessary to fight crime,” the Police Union wrote in a prepared statement.
“We are confident that the election of Mr. Curry will be Jacksonville’s best chance to help our members keep our citizens safe and move our city in a positive direction,” the FOP said.
