The School Board race in Palm Beach County is usually innocuous but the race for District 4 just became nasty. Who would think that a non-partisan race for a school board seat would turn into ugly politics with smears and lies from such a sweet looking mom.
I received the Whitfield flyer in the mail. It was produced by Fact Check Florida Electioneering Committee out of Jacksonville (Click here) so that she can distance herself from the attacks on her opponent that charged some of his contributors with no accountability, some anti homosexual agenda (she is attempting to get the large GLBT vote here) and school vouchers...dirty pool. By stating that she is a Democrat, her campaign is capitalizing on the majority of registered Democrats in Palm Beach County to bring her campaign over the top. Even though Democrats are losing in opinion polls because of trust issues, her flyer states that she is "A Democrat We can Trust" and then proceeds to personally attack her opponent, Tom Sutterfield, because of some contributors.
Ms. Whitfield has received money from the usual suspects in Lake Worth that show up in every campaign, many against the best interests of our city...illegal banners and all. You know who they are without my even mentioning their names. Most of our city commissioners donated and Maxwell gave in the name of his company. They support development at any cost. Even Jeff Clemens has contributed to her campaign along with his PAC. There are land developers, builders, contractors, lawyers, plumbers, and engineering companies along with Associated Builders.
You have to wonder why this race is attracting so much money to Whitfield's campaign. Does the School Board Budget of $2,315,232,281 for 2015 have anything at all to do with it or the possibility of building new schools that might come up for consideration? The person who gets elected will be voting on multi-million dollar construction projects in addition to million dollar R and R projects, so would these contributors have her ear to influence her selection?
Whitfield to date: $50,241,33
Sutterfield to date: $33,166.95.
Why make a non-partisan race partisan? Some people resort to this type of tactic when the race is close or when they are losing and then have a PAC do the dirty work for them. This is not a good example for kids especially when your only credential is being a Mom and you choose to vilify your opponent by attempting to destroy his integrity.
School is all about teaching the Three R's...reading, writing and arithmetic as well as what's right and wrong. Even her flyer got the District she is running for wrong.
Who can you trust to get it right?
Tom Sutterfield for District 4.
Whitfield hangs with the Lake Worth trash (Bob Leppa is "a good friend"). I won't vote for anyone who is stupid enough to call Bob Leppa a good friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out that the district was wrong on the flier. I failed to notice that and only saw her smear. Think of it like this. Charlie Crist is hated about as much as Rick Scott. It's a toss up by even using that pic.
ReplyDeleteAlready voted for tom
ReplyDeleteThe flier was false and a fat lie.
ReplyDeleteSomeone just tried to post here with the ugliest of personal attacks towards this blogger. I am used to this from a certain segment in this city...all of them cowards. Even the bully blogger hides his sentiments by posting anonymous comments on his outrageous and libelous blogs. This blog never would have been written but Ms. Whitfield resorted to ugly politics and attacked a real gentleman and made the race partisan. The question to ask...is this really an ethics violation? She might get away with it because it came out under the name of a PAC.
ReplyDeleteLynn,
ReplyDeleteI support Erica Whitfield because she is well qualified for the position on the School Board. I also support her because she is a enthusiastic supporter of Lake Worth. She has been active for years in activities and service groups in and around our city and is our neighbor. If you need to know how hard she will fight for our kids just view the video of our last Great American Raft Race. Our Lake Worth Public Schools need all the help they can get and I trust that having a school board member who lives in our community can be beneficial to our future. I have never met Mr. Sutterfield and from the looks of it he might also be well qualified. So you have two good candidates to choose. I'm supporting and voting for my neighbor and community volunteer(and pretty good raft rower)
Chip Guthrie
Thank you, Chip. Erica seems like a lovely person. I just like fair play and her flyer was negative and had nothing to do with Mr. Sutterfield. She made a bad choice. Talk about your own qualifications not make up negatives about your opponent that are NOT true.
ReplyDeleteErica has it locked up in Lake Worth as she lives here but this is a big District.
ReplyDeleteGood comments,Chip. However, I ,like Lynn, did not like the negative adds by Whitfield. I want to hear from her why she is the best candidate , not why her opponent is the worst.
ReplyDeleteLepa a good friend of hers? Everyone knows he is a first class jerkoff. People in this town don't ever want to know anyone past their immediate.
ReplyDeleteLOL. No doubt about it, Bob Lepa is an INTERESTING person. So is his side-kick Peggy.
ReplyDeleteErica is qualified...WHY? Because she rowed hard in the raft race? And because she's nice? The School District's budget is $2.3 BILLION. Erica has zero budgetary experience. She's never been in business. She's exactly the kind of person you don't want on a School Board. She'll give the unions everything they want. The kids will get short shrift. We need better schools and a better managed school district. Erica Whitfield wouldn't have any idea how to achieve either one of these.
ReplyDeleteMy concerns are the contributors to her campaign, the "Dirty Dozen" who have been feeding at the public trough, and made contributions to enable their buddies to get lucrative contracts in construction and rehabilitation and then give them kickbacks.
ReplyDeleteRemember this is "Corruption County".
I see them as viewing Erica as a pawn whom they can convince to do their bidding.
Erica did not return my call in the original election when I wanted to question her about her contributors.