A.G. Gancarski
UPDATED at 5:30 p.m. with response from Alvin Brown Campaign:
A little more than an hour after Alvin Brown unveiled a series of endorsements that were at once bipartisan and less than surprising, Lenny Curry countered with a meaningful bipartisan endorsement of his own on Thursday afternoon, just steps away from City Hall and in the same Hemming Plaza spot where Alvin Brown’s endorsement event occurred.
That endorsement: two term City Councilman Johnny Gaffney, who put Mayor Brown on blast for everything from not doing enough for his district and other areas where economic opportunity is limited and crime is high. As well, he seemed to confirm persistent rumors that Mayor Brown pressured him on the HRO in 2012, a bill he cast the deciding vote against, in a decision that confounded observers at the time.
“As District 7 Councilman for 8 years, I’m here to endorse a good friend,” Gaffney said. “We have to make sure we are taking care of the entire city.”
To that end, Gaffney contends that Curry would provide “great leadership.”
“It’s time for a change,” Gaffney continued. “I’m offering my endorsement to Lenny Curry for Mayor. We can do much better. We need new leadership,” Gaffney added. “He’s the best candidate.”
“When you care, it hurts,” he said. “I have been contemplating this matter for quite some time,” Gaffney said, mentioning conversations with Curry over the last several weeks relating to “quality of life” issues.
“In the last week, over a series of conversations, I decided to pull the trigger,” Gaffney added.
There were those who expected an endorsement to be imminent, given that Curry and Gaffney participated in a school cleanup event in the blight-ridden Grand Park neighborhood last weekend.
“It’s not about rhetoric. It’s about the children, the seniors,” whom Gaffney has had a commitment to throughout his career.
Curry “expressed the same sentiments” for the “inclusion of the entire community,” Gaffney said
“On the tough issues, it’s better to take a stance than no stance,” Gaffney said. “I know we can do better. This partnership can move the city in the right direction.”
During the Q&A period of the event, Gaffney was asked if Alvin Brown had pressured him, in 2012, to vote against the HRO measure; Gaffney was the deciding vote.
“There was pressure to not vote for it,” Gaffney said, echoing allegations made by Denise Lee to this reporter that rumors were that Mayor Brown pushed Gaffney not to vote for it, that rumors were that “Johnny Gaffney was pressured to change his mind”, and that rumors said that he would veto it if it passed (an echo of persistent rumors since 2012).
“Whether you’re for it or not for it, be transparent. Was the administration transparent?”
Curry added that “on a whole host of issues… the Mayor is not in the game,” citing what he believes is Mayor Brown’s penchant to blame the Sheriff and City Council for management problems.
“On the tough issues,” Gaffney said, “it is better to take a stance than no stance. I know we can do better.”
“This partnership can move the city in the right direction,” he added.
One of the issues that Gaffney broke with Mayor Brown on: the economic desolation experienced in his district, as well as much of the Northside, the Westside, and Northwest Jacksonville.
“Cutting police officers… cutting programs for children… is that doing enough?”
We “need high paying jobs” in these areas, he said, not “posturing” and minimum-wage positions. Also needed, he says, “someone to stand up and step up to the plate. Be transparent.”
Gaffney said that Brown “polarized the community.” In contrast, he said, Curry spoke with “passion and compassion” about the community’s underprivileged, and said that Brown is “not willing to stand up on tough, contentious issues.”
Curry sees Gaffney as a “surrogate, a friend, and a messenger” to the African American community.
Expect the countermessaging on the motivations of Gaffney and Denise Lee, who has not endorsed but who has critiqued the mayor repeatedly for what she calls “race baiting” radio ads, to begin soon.
UPDATE: The Brown campaign reminds us that Gaffney, in 2012, said to the Times-Union that he wasn’t pressured to flip on the HRO issue.
“Absolutely not. That’s insulting. I did what I did because I felt that way. That’s my convictions.”
As well, they sent a reiteration of their statement, excerpted from last night’s email in which they declared victory in the debate, that “Brown opposes all forms of discrimination and is working to eradicate discrimination from Jacksonville. That is why he took action and ordered his Office of General Counsel to conduct a comprehensive review of local, state, and federal anti-discrimination laws. This study is crucial to letting Jacksonville know where it stands and what it can do to combat all forms of discrimination. That’s the difference in this election. Brown identified a problem and exhibited leadership to resolve it.Curry, however, is so naïve and out of touch that he continues to say discrimination doesn’t exist in Jacksonville. As a result, Brown is the only candidate in this election taking the necessary steps to make Jacksonville a 21st century city.
