A.G. Gancarski
At the Lenny Curry headquarters opening in Avondale on Thursday night, former City Councilman Johnny Gaffney talked to a room full of Curry supporters about the heat he has gotten for bucking the Democratic Party and backing Curry.
“My phone is blowing up. It’s hot; got to call 911 to put it out,” Gaffney said, adding that he is “catching a lot of flak from the community.”
One community member giving him flak: Democratic Councilman Warren Jones, who issued a statement about Gaffney’s switcheroo.
“It is incredibly disappointing that Johnny Gaffney has chosen to put his political career first in making these accusations. I have no reason to believe that there is any truth in these claims [of being pressured by the Mayor’s Office to vote against the bill]. I highly question Johnny’s credibility on this issue since he not only flip flopped on passing the HRO, but repeatedly said afterwards that he received no pressure to do so,” Jones said.
“The fact is that Alvin Brown is the only candidate in this race who is taking the steps necessary to prevent discrimination in Jacksonville. Lenny Curry, on the other hand, continues to say there is no need for an HRO because he naively believes discrimination doesn’t exist,” Jones added.
There is some conflation in Jones’ statement; the mayor has yet to come out in support of either the HRO expansion or even of the Chamber’s proposed anti-discrimination ordinance. That said, Gaffney, in attempting to provide context for a vote 3 years ago that was roundly maligned, has set himself up as a target of African American politicians and Democrats who see him as an opportunist.
Gaffney’s break with the party began last year, when he stepped down from City Council to run for State House against Reggie Fullwood.
As WJXT reported, the Caucus chose Fullwood, who was a known quantity. This didn’t sit well with Gaffney.
Gaffney was looking forward to working with the Democratic Party as a state representative, but caucus leaders have already expressed a different sentiment.
“It’s very detrimental to the future,” Gaffney said at the time. “How can we win? How can we work together if there is no trust and continuity?”
“This type of leadership and behavior only encourages acrimony, division and polarization of the party, and only continues the status quo,” Gaffney said. “It should be a fair, level playing field for everyone.”
Meanwhile, in 2015, Gaffney’s brother Reggie is in a contentious Council race against George Spencer, Corrine Brown’s preferred candidate.
A debate that we covered earlier this week saw Spencer describing Gaffney as a “lifelong Republican who switched parties and ran to take control of the district” for “Republican friends” to whom he “owes favors.”
That debate ended with a prayer from Reggie Gaffney.
“Father, I ask you to remove Satan from this room.”
Reggie Gaffney has had his own well-publicized issues with Medicaid overbilling, which was an issue in the debate described above. Johnny had his own similar issues in 2004, regarding fraudulent claims. He apologized afterwards, weathered the storm, and got elected to Council in 2007.
Expect a vigorous countermessaging from the Alvin Brown campaign in the coming days. As well, expect George Spencer to capitalize on Johnny Gaffney supporting the Republican mayoral candidate.
