Commentary
The Big Story
Hometown PAC Blunders
By Rick Boettger
The usually sedate and convivial “Meet the Candidates” forum hosted by our Hometown Political Action Committee ended dramatically Monday with a seeming argument between Tony Yaniz and Hometown’s Todd German and Trish Doherty-Gibson…and a crescendo of “Boo!”s from Cates supporters.
Too many people for me to count filled Salute at Higgs Beach again, spilling out onto the surrounding walkway and beach. Dozens of candidates gave their two-minute speeches to polite applause, with only County Commissioner George Neugent rambling on so long that Hometown’s well-respected moderator, banker Todd German had to give him the hook, saying, “There’s always one we have to kick off the stage.”
With a multiplicity of wonderfully qualified candidates who all basically liked and respected each other, the evening was basically a feel-good party for Key West’s many political junkies (I know my people), with nothing said that anyone would remember. Until the end.
After Neugent challenger Danny Coll’s soft voice surprisingly got more applause than George’s, Todd German joked, “Thanks for coming. That’s it for the evening.” This was a joke because every political junkie who wasn’t there just for Salute’s fine free food was waiting for the big news of the evening: would Commissioner Tony Yaniz risk his secure seat for a run at Mayor Craig Cates’ job?
Well, we wouldn’t know until the two declared candidates spoke first. Craig gave a fine speech, powerfully listing the four major capital projects going forward on his watch, one of which, the Glynn Archer school-to-City Hall project, has been his legacy. He stopped in exactly two minutes, which I timed, because different commissioners getting different amounts of time to speak has been a bone of contention between Craig and Tony for a year.
Then blogger and perennial 5% candidate Sloan Bashinsky spoke next. His central platform is again a nude beach, and he joked about his having to be crazy to run (on his blog, he emphasizes that his political actions are controlled by his personal mostly malevolent “angels,” who are very, seriously real to him).
And here’s where the whole placid evening went Sloan-crazy, thank you Mr. Bashinsky. Todd riffed on Sloan’s comment by saying, “If you have to crazy to run, I can vouch for Sloan’s qualifications…..And I can say that because we are good friends.”
All innocent enough. Until Todd then asked, is there anyone else, who may want to test the waters, who wants to speak? Understand that this call to candidates clearly asked people who were unsure about running to come and speak, to get useful feedback about whether they had enough support to run.
Tony Yaniz had asked and had been told specifically that he did not have to declare to run to speak at this event. So he took Hometown PAC at their word, and decided to speak for two minutes. He came to the microphone, and, off the cuff, followed Sloan’s and Todd’s jokes about being crazy to run.
Tony said, “After listening to Sloan, if you have to be crazy to run, I’m not running.” From the middle of the beach crowd where I was, even with an excellent sound system, I just heard something garbled. Then, on stage, is where the funny crazy got real-life crazy. Hometown’s Trish Doherty-Gibson interrupted, “If you’re not running, you can’t speak!” Trish is the wife of Barry Gibson, the former holder of Tony’s seat, for whatever that might mean.
Todd, rarely flustered, then got what sounded from the cheap seats where I was into an argument with Tony. Todd upheld Trish, until Tony pointed out he was only speaking under the agreement that you did NOT have to declare to run, but were getting information about whether to, and, in fact, he was only joking, as Sloan and Todd himself had.
Todd recovered, got the point, and let Tony continue with what sounded like a normally-crafted stump speech, emphasizing his work on affordable housing, seniors, and youth. But the waters had been poisoned. It sounded like the publicly-contentious Yaniz had fought with calm-and-cool Todd German, realizing everyone’s view of him as reported by Cates’ main supporter, the Key West Citizen.
So Tony left the stage still receiving a bit more applause than Cates, but with a shameful chorus of boos clearly coming from Cates’ table in the center of the restaurant. And please, anyone with a cell phone showing others booing at this point, please come forward—I was there. The ever gracious Todd tried to make light of the donnybrook with a “Well, that went well.”
But it was, I believe, the sourest note ever sounded by our town’s respected political action committee. I have taken issue in the past with a few instances of severely biased questioning in some of their forums, but never had they blundered like this. They made sure at the end to tell Tony, the next forum will only be for declared candidates. This only reinforces that you did NOT have to be a declared candidate to speak at this one. So whether you got Tony’s joke about being Sloan-crazy or not, the get-off-the mic argument should never have happened.
Everyone makes mistakes. I wish we could give Hometown PAC and Todd German a mulligan and do this from the top.
Interesting take on our event Rick. The turnout was as you mentioned overwhelming and we thank everyone for their attendance.
One important clarification I must make is that Trish Doherty-Gibson, a long time attendee of our events, does not and never has had an affiliation with Hometown!
As to the last speaker of the event and the back and forth that happened between the two of us, my take, being that I was standing right next to him, is a bit different than yours.
Luckily, rather than having to relay on our memories, we welcome everyone to simply review the video of the event. The video should be posted soon on our website, http://www.hometownkeywest.com
Thanks for weighing in, Todd. I stand corrected about Trish’s non-affiliation with Hometown. I inferred your responding to her comment to indicate some sort of influence over proceedings. I would welcome any further substantial disagreements with my understanding of events.
We all appreciate what you do for our community. Your engaging speaking style includes a measured and welcome amount of humor. Yesterday was the exceptional case of an innocent joke about “being crazy to run” running itself a little off the tracks. I hope you can maintain your easy style in the future, and not let this single incident make you boring.
Well, Rick, I wish you had told the whole of my remarks, which set up what you reported. I don’t recall verbatim what I said, but it went like, “Recently Craig and I were at a community meeting and we agreed anyone who wanted to be mayor was insane, all the grief the mayor catches, it’s a hell job.” Don’t feel badly, Gwen Filosa didn’t tell it all either in her article in today’s KW West Citizen.
Since you get all my daily posts, Rick, from me, at http://www.goodmorningkeywest.com, you darn well know a nude beach is not the center of my platform this time around. I mentioned a nude beach last night, to commemorate what happened at Salute in 2009, when topless Aphrodite burst upon the multitude, shouting “Nude beaches for Key West! Sloan for mayor!” I wend on to say I am the off the wall candidate, because my suggestions work, if used, as opposed to other suggestions which do not work. Since Craig had praised the city’s progress, I said Truman Waterfront was spaghetti thrown against a wall, and it was not free, it would be a fee park, and the taxpayers will pay for it.
I invited the audience, if they did not know me, or know what I was about, to check out http://www.goodmorningkeywest.com, where they would see state of the union of Key West articles daily, and other stuff, too. I said nothing about angels last night, but you’d not know that reading what you reported today. So thanks for bringing them into this, because it was them who steered Todd and Tony into what ended up showing everyone there, who was watching on, and watching on livestream, and who later will see Hometown’s U-Tube video of it, the Tony everyone needed to see. Saying it another way, Todd and Tony were victims of the angels’ mischief.
The weird thing is, I really did think Tony meant it when he said he was not going to run this year, and gave the microphone back to Todd and tried to leave the bandstand and Todd restrained him. Then, it seemed, another Tony took over, and all of that, of course, can be seen on Hometown’s U-tube video when it’s up on Hometown’s website, maybe it’s already up. Nobody needed to read anything; just watch the video, starting with my comments, the Tonys’ brief announcement that he was not running, and then his and Todd’s tussle.
Rick, as I was typing my comment, this came in to my email account from Sheldon Davidson of Hometown! PAC, I have not seen the video, but it did come up and start running after I clicked on U-tube, then I stopped it and wrote this fo you and your readers.
Dear Sloan,
Please go to http://www.hometownkeywest.com and click on the You Tube icon which appears on the right side of the Home Page as you look at your computer screen.
Clicking on this icon will take you to the Hometown Channel and the various videos that have been posted–there you wills see the video of the event. Subscribe to the Hometown Channel and you will get updates on recent posts. Sort of easy for your internet skills.
I have been told that the video for the first 20 minutes may be a little shaky but then the videographer switched cameras and everthing was terrific.
Sheldon
It’s an insult to EVERY candidate and readers seeking information about the event that the only thing you and Gwen Filosa, Citizen reporter, both focused on was the “Yaniz” situation at the end. If that didn’t occur what would you both have written? Anything?
I would like you to both publish a second story without that. It’s outrageous for you to write when referring to ALL the candidates that “… with nothing said that anyone would remember”. Both of you should just stay home and watch cartoons instead or cover ‘Sniffing Contests across the street at the dog park. Several people spoke to me about the 477 FLORIDA DEAD BABIES that were in the Miami Herald article I referred to and that was broadcast on WLRN that same morning. I attended the Miami Herald’s Town Hall meeting on Thurs., 4/17 along with several hundred people who thought that the DEATHS OF 477 YOUNG CHILDREN in the DCF was “worth remembering”. Since you and the editorial staff at the Citizen thought that nothing else at the event was noteworthy, it would be better if neither of you attend any other events. lET OTHERS USE THE SPACE. So, don’t bother going to my new website when it’s up next week at http://www.WeWantJoe.com Joe Allen, No Party Affliation Candidate for Governor. It’s good that Guy DeBoer felt my appearance and what I said “was worth remembering” by putting my picture in the KonkLife email E-Blast. Thanks Guy from many people.