I wrote this yesterday morning around 8am. Normally I would never write something of this magnitude in advance as I am superstitious--don't like to jinx the outcome. I have known for a few weeks now that Mr. Ramiccio would be rejected at the polls. It was a gut feeling. I was counting on the common sense of the citizenry and they came through.
My inspiration for this campaign can be directly attributed to the debate at The Lake Worth Playhouse. I had not planned on becoming so involved on a daily basis but Ramiccio's bullying bothered me. Although I had known about the many episodes involving Tom Ramiccio through the years, we all got to observe first-hand his unfair and ridiculous personal attacks against a fellow candidate, a fellow citizen. But he didn't stop with The Playhouse. For a man who couldn't tolerate someone "smearing his good name," his attacks against Waterman intensified and got more ugly as time went by. Each lie got more outrageous.
A hand-painted Waterman sign was ripped from its frame and discarded. His message of anarchy, deadbeats and chickens got old. He wanted to fire the city manager, the best one we have had in years, because he was on the side of the Unions, the very organizations with whom Stanton was negotiating for the benefit of all the residents here, not just Union members. He played with the emotions of uninformed voters--the only way to lower your bill is to sell the Utility he said. Some fell for that. He took campaign contributions from a company involved in a law suit with the City of Lake Worth and one in which Retha Lowe was involved and paid the price. He took money from the Police and Fire Unions also involved in negotiations with us. He accepted a lot of money from Wayne Akers Ford, a company with a very favorable electric rate. He made promises he could never keep. He aligned himself with a losing candidate and used her for an endorsement not learning that last year she was poison and one of the reasons Carla Blockson lost. He engaged in attack mailers, not remembering or caring that last year's Blockson mailer of the mad Scientist only got people mad. Those who aligned themselves with Ramiccio were uninformed or had some personal grudge or just wanted to place responsibility on someone for the guy next door who never mowed his grass. Blaming the other guy was just an excuse that gave them something to rally around and they jumped on the Ramiccio wagon.
With Mr. Ramiccio, it was all about winning, nothing else--he never learned from his or others' mistakes and the voters knew the city was in for some trouble if he became mayor. Ramiccio was not even in the country. He had something more important to do. On the very day of the election, the Post reminded us that it was his intent to sue the City of Lake Worth. The Post, as well as 56% of the voters remembered too. Lisa Maxwell who campaigned for Ramiccio after losing the primary commented on the Ramiccio loss last night: "We need to assess what happened here." That was the problem with the Ramiccio campaign. They didn't know what hit them.
I especially want to thank our new mayor, Rachel Waterman, for keeping her dignity throughout this election in spite of the worst smear from any opponent. She kept her cool and she was here and focused on the people of Lake Worth with a positive message--I share your vision for a safe, prosperous community in which to live, work and play and we will get there together.
Read the Palm Beach Post article here.
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