For those new to politics – might I give you one piece of information that will help you make sense of what happens when good candidates change after being elected?

It begins here.

There is a question that all political consultants ask when a candidate hires them.

The question…

“Tell me everything about your life. That includes the dirt that might be in your past. Go as far back as you can and tell me everything.”

The candidate usually hesitates, unsure how to answer. The consultant then states, “If you don’t tell me, I can’t help you. Your opponent will get the dirt on you so we need to be prepared. We can be ready for their dirty schemes against you.”

And then the candidate spills the beans. It may be a bean from way back when he/she was a kid and got in trouble for shooting off a bottle rocket in a mailbox. It might be that one night stand they had and their wife never knew. It might be a bankruptcy from years ago. Or maybe they had a DUI. Maybe they got fired from a job. It may have just been an error in judgment. Whatever it was…the beans spill and the consultant picks them all up and puts them in their file folder to use for another day.

They are ready when the candidate’s opponent drops the bombshell information. They have a great answer already prepared. Or they find something on the opposing team and gaslight them before they can drop those bombs.

But don’t think for a minute all those beans are thrown away when their candidate wins.

Nope. Most candidates KEEP THEIR CONSULTANT after they win the election. They are on retainer for some strange reason and always sit in the background of decisions politicians make.

And imagine when the time comes and their consultant wants to get a deal done for maybe another client or someone who wants to do work with the city, state or federal government.

The consultant just might pour those beans out and remind the politician about all the stuff they have on them. Or they may not even have to do that. The politician already knows the beans the consultant holds. It’s one of those politically sacred moments where you know they know stuff on you. Silently the politician hangs his head in shame and reluctantly does the bidding of the consultant without either of them having to say a word.

In other words, the consultant becomes the puppet master behind the scenes holding not only the beans but pulling the strings as well.

This all sounds so sinister and something right out of a movie. Who would believe such a thing occurs?

Unfortunately we have watched this happen in politics with lobbyists but whoever thought consultants in the background could participate in this scenario as well.

So why am I sharing this information with you?

Because in our opinion we believe Randy DeFoor was NOT approved as our city’s General Counsel by the City Council because the bean holders and string pullers might have had something to do with the decision.

Imagine this happening…

The consultants who ran Ms. DeFoor’s campaign for a short while had already used the innocuous beans they had on her – and cooked them in a stew adding in exaggerations and embellishing upon them. Exaggerations such as she was Baker Acted and had her law license suspended were fiction.

Rumors and whispers began shortly after Ms. DeFoor’s nomination and the string-led men on the city council saw what happened with Ms. DeFoor’s beans and their stomachs churned.

So imagine the politicians on the city council digging their heels in and refusing to even entertain this highly qualified individual for the position. They came up with bogus reasons for why she wasn’t good for the job. They attempted to ruin her good name. They seemed to want to destroy her reputation.

Evidently these guys do not think anything will come of this personal attack on Ms. DeFoor. They believe people will forget it when it’s time for their re-election and life will go on so they have nothing to worry about.

That’s where they are wrong. This last mayoral election is evidence that people are fed up with these tactics of kill and destroy their opponent. Nearly 11,000 Republicans voted for Mayor Deegan because of this very thing they did to Ms. DeFoor. They didn’t learn one damn thing. Their blindness to their prideful nature is amazing to watch.

Every Republican on the city council who refused to meet with Ms. DeFoor or give her good reasons why she should not be considered as General Counsel should be forever cast on the Wall of Shame in City Hall. They put politics over what was best for the city. That’s shameful.

Please note these men and remember how they treated this important decision for our city. They are Will Lahnen, Kevin Carrico, Raul Arias, Randy White, Terrance Freeman, Ron Salem, Nick Howland, and Chris Miller.

We dug into the consultants these men on the city council used and a funny thing emerged. Many of them are the same such as: Electioneering Consulting, On Target Messaging, Data Targeting, and Flex Point Media.

So here is the power you have now.

The next time any of these politicians run for re-election or a new candidate shows up and wants your vote, ask them if they are using any of these consultants. If they are – tell them – I will NOT vote for you. I refuse to donate to your campaign and I will alert my neighbors, friends and family members to tell them to vote No too.

If you need help finding out who the consultant is behind the candidate, please contact your local Supervisor of Elections and ask them for the information. They have the reports and it is public record. You have a right to know.

Let’s continue to clean up the dirty politics in Jacksonville and run the consultants out of town who sit in the shadows and have too much say in what goes on in our city. Our city deserves better than this and the stench of corruption has got to go!

Plus we have real work to do like fixing infrastructure, reducing crime, and most importantly – addressing the human traffickers who are bringing little children from the borders to our city.

That’s our opinion. What say you?