School Board candidate April Carney said she was intimidated by the husband of her opponent this week and she was shaken enough to file a police report over
the incident.
It happened at a meeting of the First Coast Republicans in the Whiskey Jax Kitchen & Cocktails restaurant at Atlantic Beach. About 75 people attended.
Carney and local activist Quisha King were speaking at the meeting. The president, Mitch Reeves, asked those at the meeting not to use their cell phones or record.
During her talk, Carney said she noticed the husband of Elizabeth Andersen, her opponent in the school board race. He was sitting in the bar next to the dining area with another man who was recording. She motioned to her husband to talk with the person.
The man, identified as David Hathaway, School Board Member Elizabeth Andersen’s appointee for the half cent penny oversight committee, declined to stop recording, saying he was not attending the meeting.
Afterward, the two men approached April outside the restaurant, and she said she felt intimidated because her path back inside the restaurant was blocked.
Carney said Andersen later approached her husband to distance himself from Hathaway’s behavior, but she was concerned enough to file a report with the Atlantic Beach Police Dept.
According to the report, neither of the men spoke to or touched Carney. She was advised to call the police before attending another such event in Atlantic Beach.
“I would like to ask Ms. Andersen why she would send her husband and the District 2 appointee for the Sales Tax Oversight Committee to come and intimidate another woman.”
“They were drinking the entire evening and made me feel extremely uncomfortable,” Carney said.
“For someone who is being well funded to the tune of $100,000 from the American Federation of Teachers, I don’t understand why Ms. Andersen feels she needs to resort to such measures against her opponent. It’s very disappointing. I shouldn’t feel that I need to hire security when I go to speaking events.”
“I have nothing but respect for the individual classroom teachers but these teacher union bosses and politicians have a well established history of dirty campaigning tactics. I will not let this deter me from doing what is best for Duval County families, students and teachers.”
Carney and Andersen are running for the District 2 seat on the School Board, which will be on the Aug. 23 primary election ballot.
