A.G. Gancarski
With early voting well under way, Mayor Alvin Brown rolled out a series of endorsements for a Thursday media event, including former GOP Council Presidents Matt Carlucci and Alberta Hipps, LGBT activist Jimmy Midyette, and other leaders from the nonprofit community, along with Republican Councilman Stephen Joost and Democratic Councilman Warren Jones.
Critics will say those endorsements come with asterisks. They will say that Carlucci is a “RINO” who also backs Ken Jefferson and is instrumental in the attempted sell of the mayor’s pension plan. And Lenny Curry campaign spokesman Curry Brian Hughes issued a preemptive strike on Hipps.
“Alvin Brown proposes budgets with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for his campaign donors. Then he puts them in his TV spots as if it’s news. So, surprise, today he’s announcing the endorsement of a Jacksonville lobbyist who represents corporations that get millions of taxpayer dollars. With each new endorsement of Brown, taxpayers in Jacksonville should be asking, ‘How much of my money did that cost?’”
That said, beyond the asterisks, it’s a show of bipartisan support that jibes neatly with the campaign’s messaging about Brown working with Democrats and Republicans alike.
The mayor’s remarks were on message, painting Curry as a partisan who “catered to the most extreme wing of the party” and who would “turn back the clock” if he were elected. Brown contrasted his tendency to “work across the aisle” toward solutions with Curry’s alleged penchant for making “promises without proof that he can pay for them.”
As did his endorsers, Brown messaged against Sheriff John Rutherford, saying Rutherford had the funding to hire 80 more officers, a contention Curry and Rutherford have disputed many times in recent months.
Carlucci pointed out the vibrancy of Hemming Plaza, advising those on hand to “compare Hemming Plaza today to four years ago.” He called it an example of a “city revitalizing … moving in the right direction.”
Carlucci also peddled the meme that the sheriff’s budget has increased, and that the “pension plan is on the cusp of a solution.”
Meanwhile, Carlucci argued, Curry “has run the most negative mayoral campaign that I have ever witnessed.”
That’s in contrast to Brown, whom Carlucci said “has grown into a great mayor.”
Joost was next, and he said that of the oft-mentioned $48 million for the Sheriff’s budget a “lot has gone to pension.” He lauded the mayor’s own pension plan, which “stabilizes” costs and makes it “sustainable.”
“Actuaries have gone through it tooth and nail,” the Republican CPA said.
Hipps followed, lauding the mayor’s understanding of economic development, and his work with the city council, the Chamber, and Rick Scott (the latter two endorsed Curry).
When asked if her endorsement came with strings, Hipps said, “I have absolutely supported people who want to come to Cecil and create news jobs.”
Joost, meanwhile, has been linked to a potential job in the mayor’s second term, an assertion that he said is “completely untrue.”
