A.G. Gancarski
After Wednesday night’s debate of Florida 4th Congressional District Republicans, John Rutherford, Hans Tanzler, and Lake Ray addressed the media.
Rutherford wanted to clarify his position on guns.
“I never supported a national gun registry. I never opposed Stand Your Ground or the Castle Doctrine,” the former Jacksonville sheriff noted.
The Tanzler side has taken to calling him “Liberal John Rutherford,” which made the sheriff laugh.
“That’s the first time those words have ever been used together,” Rutherford noted.
Rutherford feels good about the polls, adding that he’s “up double digits,” and saying that the internal polls from his campaign confirm the public surveys.
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However, the other candidates in the race are not in double digits, and their press avails went differently.
Tanzler, who has poured $200,000 of his own money into the race yet still languishes in low double digits in polling, noted he doesn’t “necessarily believe in polls,” given “errors” and “flaws” abound.
Meanwhile, when asked about appearing as a special guest speaker at a Conservative Outsider PAC fundraiser, a PAC that has already spent over $200,000 against Rutherford, Tanzler said he was “not even aware that [he] appeared” at the fundraiser.
His campaign manager, Brett Doster, noted he and Tanzler “left before the fundraiser started.”
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Lake Ray, meanwhile, went on the attack on Rutherford as a “lobbyist for the sheriff’s association,” where he advocated for the “hidden tax” imposed by red light cameras.
Ray accused police departments of “changing the timing of lights” to boost revenues, half of which go to Redflex, the multinational company that holds contracts in places ranging from Jacksonville to China.
The most interesting comments from Ray, however, had to do with the Duval County GOP Straw Poll, where his name was omitted from the ballot.
Ray noted that his name was “left off,” as the “people handling the ballots” backed Rutherford.
The omission had “everything to do with someone trying to get press,” Ray added.
“Polls have lots of issues,” Ray continued.
As the cliche goes, the final poll in this race will be rendered Aug. 30.
