No question, if there is a laboratory for half-baked GOP ideas in Alachua County it is Newberry (town motto: Annex Or Die).
The home of Chuckles Clemons, who engineered the hijacking of GNV’s citizen owned utility. The city that took its local school away from the district. Whose leaders wanted to break away from GNV’s sphere of influence to a refuge of its own making, Springs County.
But is Newberry irrevocably red? We may soon find out.
Newberry elections are coming up on April 8. And former GNV City Commissioner Susan Bottcher is urging county Dems to financially support three progressive candidates who could indeed flip Newberry blue.
The candidates are:
Joy Glanzer for Mayor
Steve Panaghi for Commission, Group IV
Rosa Campbell for Commission, Group V
“In the past these elections were pretty quiet, almost to the point of non-campaign campaigning. The good ol’ boys understood that the less the voters in Newberry knew about the elections, the better it’s been for them staying in office,” Bottcher said in a recent email.
She was writing on behalf of One Alachua County, which spearheaded last year’s effort to reverse single member county commission districts.
Although voters opted to return to multi-member districts – meaning every voter in the county would be able to vote to fill every county commission seat – the issue is tied up in court.
“A group of us in Gainesville have offered the progressives in Newberry (yes, there is a growing population of them there!) our assistance and they’ve eagerly accepted. They want change. They want our help.”
Newberry politicians “can or have impacted Gainesville and are a testing ground for the Alachua County GOP to ‘turn Alachua County red’ (their actual words).”
Listen, Dems, turnabout is definitely fair play. Help the Newberry Progressive Three out why don’t you?
FreeGNV 