Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

A.G. GancarskiSeptember 13, 2016

On Tuesday night, the Jacksonville City Council unanimously approved an ordinance intended to keep a firmer legislative hand on boards and commissions. The genesis of this bill was the 2013-14 Task Force on Consolidated Government, which found some boards were effectively useless, with sporadic meeting schedules. The bill amends the ordinance section on Boards and Commissions — to add […]

A.G. GancarskiSeptember 13, 2016

Will the third time be the charm for the efforts to expand Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance? In 2012, a fully inclusive bill fell by a margin of 17 to 2. A modified bill lost by a much-smaller margin of 10 to 9, with a councilman — Johnny Gaffney — saying he’d gotten confused when he voted. Gaffney […]

A.G. GancarskiSeptember 8, 2016

For the third time in less than five years, the Jacksonville City Council will be compelled to consider — again — extension of the city’s Human Rights Ordinance to include the LGBT community. Councilman Tommy Hazouri has been making the media rounds this month to message ahead of the re-introduction of the measure. Hazouri told the Jax […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 27, 2016

Friday’s arrest of rabid anti-LGBT rights Brunswick pastor Ken Adkins on charges of child molestation and aggravated child molestation of a young man represented the end of an era in Jacksonville politics. It was the end of an era for white Republicans, who, going back a decade, saw Adkins as a portal to picking up black […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 26, 2016

Pastor Ken Adkins, perhaps best known in Jacksonville for representing the “Bible-based” opposition on expert panels during mayoral “community conversations” about the expansion of the Human Rights Ordinance to LGBT people, was arrested for child molestation and aggravated child molestation Friday. First reports suggest at least one of the incidents happened at his Brunswick church, with others […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 22, 2016

File this under “How to make a closing argument for a citywide referendum, Jacksonville style.” It was a few minutes before a noon presser with what Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry called an “unprecedented coalition” of people spanning both parties, every area of town, and all other markers of diversity. Curry and former Mayor John Peyton talked to FloridaPolitics.com and […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 19, 2016

There is nothing quite as interesting and larger than life than a 20th century Jacksonville mayor. And nothing amusing in quite the same way as seeing two of them in a parking lot. Riding to a “Yes for Jacksonville” event at the Eastside’s Mary Singleton Center with Councilman Tommy Hazouri, we noticed a SUV parked provocatively by […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 18, 2016

For the first time perhaps ever, an initiative of former RPOF chair and current Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is being packaged as “progressive.” A “Yes for Jacksonville” mailer bills County Referendum 1, which would extend a current half-cent sales tax devoted to infrastructure from 2030 to as far out as 2060 to deal with the current […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 16, 2016

Those who have waited for opposition to Jacksonville’s proposed “pension tax” are finally seeing it manifest, just in time for early voting. With oppressive humidity in the air and a non-affiliated crackhead milling around the parking lot engaging with the media, the Duval Democrats made their stand against Jacksonville’s County Referendum 1 in a parking […]

A.G. GancarskiAugust 9, 2016

At a job creation event Tuesday at Jacksonville’s Deutsche Bank, where 300 new financial services jobs were promised, FloridaPolitics.com had questions for Gov. Rick Scott and Mayor Lenny Curry about their endorsed presidential candidate’s description of Jacksonville being economically “devastated.” Among Donald Trump’s assertions: “This area has been devastated by the loss of industrial jobs …. As you […]

Tag: Tommy Hazouri

Jax Council to take firmer hand on boards, commissions

Why Jax HRO expansion advocates feel optimistic

Another attempt to expand the HRO is coming to Jacksonville

How hate preacher Ken Adkins became Jacksonville’s problem

Ken Adkins, outspoken critic of Jacksonville’s human rights ordinance, arrested for child molestation

‘Unprecedented’ coalition supports Jacksonville’s pension reform referendum

Jake Godbold calls on ‘army’ of seniors to support pension-tax referendum

New ‘Yes for Jacksonville’ flyer calls pension-tax referendum ‘progressive solution’

Duval Dems slam ‘sham flyer,’ ‘smoke and mirrors’ pension tax

Lenny Curry, Rick Scott sidestep questions about Donald Trump’s critique of ‘devastated’ Jax economy