Wes Wolfe
With three weeks to go until Election Day, former Nassau County Commissioner George Spicer has outspent incumbent Commissioner Thomas Ford by more than double — and more than triple that of challenger Alyson McCullough.
He spent more than $9,900 in the last two weeks of July with Clear Cut Strategies, a Delaware print media firm, for mail pieces. It’s not Spicer’s first large mail purchase of the campaign — he spent nearly $7,000 with Clear Cut in the last week of June and more than $4,800 in early May. Spicer spent just over $5,900 in mid-April for campaign signs. Another $3,000 on his expenditures was a refund of money Spicer gave to his campaign.
Going into August, Spicer spent more than $35,900 of the $47,690 raised for his campaign so far. That also counts for the highest burn rate. Ford spent the second-most with more than $14,940 over the campaign of $38,850 raised, and McCullough’s spent around $11,760 of her $20,315.
Other organizations are involved in the campaign, with a mailer sent to benefit McCullough, and Ford included with the Nassau County firefighters’ endorsements.
“Through your four years in office you have been a staunch advocate for not only firefighters but all of public safety,” the firefighters said in their endorsement of Ford. “You have proven time and again that you will stand up for firefighters and their families and that public safety is a top priority.”
They called Ford “the obvious choice.”
Spicer has union backing, but not the firefighters. He received $1,000 at the end of July from the North Florida Central Labor Council’s political action committee. Spicer’s a retired boilermaker. He also recently secured the endorsement of Citizens for Public Beaches and Shores.
“There is major development entering Nassau County, from Interstate 95 at Wildlight to the beaches on the South End at Riverstone and more to come,” Lowell Hall said in the endorsement. “It is important we select candidates who we know are going to be with us when it matters and protect our resources and rights.
“During our fight to establish a customary use ordinance to protect our rights to use the beaches, George proved he would stand up when it mattered.”
Ford was relatively consistent toward the end of July, spending around $880 both weeks. The larger purchases were around $882 to Florida Sun Printing in Callahan for printed materials, and around $517 to Island Promos in Georgia for cups. He raised $2,250 over a couple of weeks from three contributors.
McCullough’s largest expenditure went to Hagan Ace Hardware in Hilliard for around $640 in lumber for signposts. She raised a combined $160 from two people during that time. Between the three, she’s been running as the change candidate since she’s the only candidate who has never served on the Commission.
“The taxpayer continues to lose when the greed and good ol’ (boy) system stay in power,” McCullough wrote in a recent post including her campaign’s mail piece. “We’re in a mess of lawsuits, we have potholes, our firefighters aren’t being paid living wages and our infrastructure has to be put in place. I am not responsible for this mess and clearly voting for the boys who got us into it isn’t the solution.”
