A.G. Gancarski
LJ Holloway, a Jacksonville Democrat CD 5 hopeful, had the softest launch to a campaign I’ve ever seen.
For one thing, a release promoting the event, sent from the head of the Duval County Black Democratic Caucus to fellow Democrats, kept the candidate unnamed. Sort of like in a PTBNL (player to be named later) trade in baseball.
Except this was a candidate to be named later, which is, well, unusual.
For another thing, the release was predicated on a rumor. That being one about Congresswoman Corrine Brown possibly running in CD 10. A rumor that Representative Brown denied to this reporter on Monday.
“There will be an important campaign announcement at a news conference in Hemming Park of a political candidate who is tired of the hypocrisy and status quo in our democracy. The Candidate is a Jacksonville native who longs for UNITY in the Community. For a better day, this CANDIDATE believes we should put people before politics and wants to form a more perfect union and bring POWER back to the PEOPLE. The candidate says, ‘I am running for office to fight for a better quality of life for our citizens, a more efficient return of our tax dollars and to establish proactive and cooperative leadership’.”
The candidate. Sort of like a masked pro wrestler. Perhaps she could appropriate the old Rey Mysterio mask with the question marks.
I was assured that she did in fact have a press conference, across the park from where the incumbent and Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry held court. Holloway’s big resume point: a gig in the DC Mayor’s Office. Which sounds great. Until we think of the sorry history of DC mayors. Then, not so much.
In any event, LJ Holloway put out a campaign video. It is remarkable. And not strictly for its use of the first-person.
Sitting in a beige room, with what sounds like a variation of the theme from The Exorcist playing, Holloway recited a list of things that “I believe” and other things that “I want.”
Billing herself as a “divine original willing to do the impossible to achieve the inevitable,” Holloway observed that “Pell Grants have been cut,” yet “students should be able to go to college debt free.”
But she didn’t stop there. She also believes that “baby boomers ought to be able to retire with Social Security” and that “seniors should be able to age with dignity and grace, and not have to worry about whether they can afford to pay for a meal or for a pill” and “that young people should believe in the Constitution… that the government is not a democracy that’s full of hypocrisy.”
Those of you who are full grown adults or middle age? Well, you’re out of luck. When you get older, though, rest assured that LJ will deliver…
Wait, that’s the other candidate’s catchphrase.
You know, the one who hasn’t lost an election in going on a quarter-century.
The LJ Holloway campaign likely will be one to watch. Corrine Brown has had some eccentric challengers over the years. Looks like she has another one.
