Tom Jackson, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Tom JacksonSeptember 7, 2016

As someone who lives near a thoroughfare in a constant state of construction, I sympathize with anyone who looks upon the approach of road expansion with dread. It’s noisy. It’s dirty. It’s inconvenient. It’s hard on tires and suspensions. It impedes traffic in ways that seem to outweigh any eventual benefit. And all but the […]

Tom JacksonAugust 30, 2016

The impression I get is people have the wrong idea about primary elections. To apply a sports analogy, people — I’d call them voters, except they’re plainly not — think of primaries as the exhibition season. This is not without solid foundation. I mean, they do sort of look like the preseason. Starry-eyed unknowns hoping […]

Tom JacksonAugust 22, 2016

Ordinarily, the only thing less interesting than electing a county’s property appraiser is electing its clerk of court. At least people have a pretty good idea of what a property appraiser does. But when a long-time appraiser creates an open seat by announcing his retirement, and does so in a year in which Donald Trump declares all […]

Tom JacksonAugust 10, 2016

By all that is reasonable in the world of campaign politics, thoughtful people ought to be wrangling over Donald Trump’s economic plan, announced Monday in Detroit. It does, after all, present the possibility of an ambitious return to supply-side policies; encouraging private businesses both large and small with lowered taxes and a regulatory freeze. This […]

Tom JacksonAugust 3, 2016

They’d reached closing statements at a recent forum for Hillsborough County Commission District 6 Democratic hopefuls in Bealsville, near Plant City, and Pat Kemp, the Tampa lawyer and serial candidate, was feeling magnanimous. The town center was a thing of beauty, she said, praising the town hall, expanded library, a roundabout with a flag at […]

Tom JacksonJuly 25, 2016

If the axiom describing how the major parties go about selecting their presidential nominees — Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line — had held up in 2016, the Jeb! versus Feel-the-Bern campaign ahead would be only slightly less bizarre than the one we have. Instead, the parties switched roles — which, in Caitlyn […]

Tom JacksonJuly 18, 2016

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At long last, it looks like Republicans are going to do this thing. This unexpected, astonishing and — not to put too fine a point on it — crazy thing. They’re going to nominate for president a demagogic, bullying, uncouth, uncurious, insincere, shifty, disloyal blowhard with minuscule thumbs and an unconscionable combover. In short, out […]

Tom JacksonJuly 15, 2016

There is no shortage of terms to describe what happened on the Riviera promenade in idyllic Nice, France, Thursday night. Grisly. Barbaric. Hateful. Unforgivable. Monstrous. The list goes on. The one word that no longer applies, however, is this: Unimaginable. We passed the threshold of the inconceivable years ago, probably in September 2001, when Islamist […]

Tom JacksonJuly 6, 2016

Of course, Hillary Clinton isn’t going to face prosecution over Servergate. Hadn’t she told us herself? This, back in March: “That’s not gonna happen.” Four months later, her prediction was fulfilled, proving once more, if there’s anything a Clinton knows, it’s how to skirt the law. On that front, this, from NBCNews.com report, is noteworthy: “Over their decades in public […]

Tom JacksonJune 28, 2016

And so, once more — perhaps for the last time — into the Benghazi breach. The House Select Committee on Benghazi released its findings on the debacle Tuesday, and it is sobering. Add the blistering sidebar by GOP Congressmen Mike Pompeo (Kansas) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) and you have the completest possible portrait of what […]

Tom Jackson

Tom Jackson: TBX meets the Star Trek test

Tom Jackson: Maybe if we thought of primaries as playoffs …

In Pasco, big fireworks over low-profile job

Tom Jackson: Donald Trump consumed by fire he kindled

Tom Jackson: Old-school Democrat hopes Hillsborough can make a deal

Tom Jackson: Democrats suddenly in need of a ringmaster

Tom Jackson: A GOP convention unlike any other

Tom Jackson: Reeling from horror that is no longer unimaginable

Just another (law-skirting) day in the life of Hillary Clinton

Tom Jackson: No moving on from Benghazi horror show