KONK Life Presents this year’s Candidates Questionnaire Randy Becker for Key West Mayor
Q. In 20 words or less, let our readers know the reasons in general that you believe you would make the very best person to fulfill the position for which you are running.
A. Comprehensive knowledge of local issues, strong leadership skills, commitment to values and vision ensuring Key West’s best days are ahead.
Q. What specifically are the top four factors you believe qualify you over the assets of any other potential candidate?
A. 1) I know our city and its neighborhoods well through active participation in numerous civic and community organizations (Florida Keys Outreach Coalition for the Homeless, National Organization of Women, Women’s March Key West, League of Women Voters, Bahama Village Redevelopment Advisory Committee, Neighborhood Accountability Board, Truman Waterfront Advisory Board, KW High School Truancy Team, Interfaith Ministerial Alliance). You’ve seen me engaged in all the local public witness events over the past decade. I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk.
A. 2) I am a candidate for all the people, known as a coalition builder focused on the greater good, not “in the pocket” of any special interest group.
A. 3) I am a nationally honored public speaker who can represent Key West to the county, state, nation, and the world in a way that will make our city proud.
A. 4) I am a person of integrity and vision who will uphold the highest ethical standards and respect the trust that citizens place in their elected leaders.
Q. What is your personal view on the state of the nation in this year’s particularly interesting political season?
A. Our American experiment in freedom, justice, respect, inclusion, and hope for a better future for our children is threatened by those who see the past as more compelling than the future. We the People who cherish our Founders’ vision of “a more perfect Union” are called to action to protect our essential values and rights and to keep our democracy moving forward instead of backwards.
Q. Given your personal awareness of governance in Southeast Florida, are you optimistic about relations between the public and the powers that be?
A. In recent years, vested commercial and social interests have sought and gained significant limitations of home rule in our cities and counties. The expressed will of the people, either in direct referendums or through local elected officials, is limited and has been too often denied. Given the present Florida legislature and governor, I am not optimistic about the people of Key West having their choices respected in matters as diverse as preparing for sea-level rise, ban of assault weapons, limitations on use of plastics, and more. However, I am optimistic about our ability and willingness to confront and speak our truths to the powers that be.
Q. Do you feel that the general tenor of political discourse is becoming less polite in Monroe County or staying about the same?
A. Monroe County is not a separate entity, and whether through the national encouragement of locals or the visiting attitude of tourists, political discourse has become rancorous. Even in Key West I have noticed an increase in printed personal attacks and repeating of national political rhetoric, propaganda, and alternate facts.
Q. Tell us more about your personal history –- your work and family life –- and how they relate to your political ambitions.
A. I grew up in a lower middle-class family. Deep understandings in that family were that all people deserved respect, a better life was possible for all, and that our individual lives could be in service of the greater good. My mother was a social activist and a political candidate. I received a Bachelor’s Degree from Brandeis University in physics and sociology, a combination which has left me with a lifelong appreciation of a factual understanding of existence and the complexity of human interactions. My career, as a Unitarian Universalist minister with an emphasis on religious education, prepared me for public speaking, consensus building, and a commitment to a life of values and vision. My personal life has been anything but linear. Along the way I have been graced with two daughters, had a son with serious birth defects who never came home from the hospital, a divorce, a new marriage which included my wife’s daughter Ericka and her best friend who became another daughter, and Ericka’s death at the age of 20 in an accident caused by a drunk driver. Through all the grief, joy, and challenges, I have learned that there can be meaning on the other side of any experience. That pragmatic optimism describes my approach to life, my campaign, and how I will lead if I am fortunate enough to be elected mayor. My wife, Elissa Bishop-Becker, is a retired Licensed Professional Counselor. Her wisdom and insights into human behavior inform my understanding of my fellow residents of Key West. She is also my Campaign Manager. I may have retired but I have not retreated – bringing with me all my training, skills, and commitment to inclusion, seasoned by experience and ready for a better future.
Q. From your personal experience, would a generally peaceable outlook in the Keys depend upon a measure of control over the number of our visitors and residents?
A. Since the late 1800s, Key West has been a stable and supportive community of about 25,000 residents who have encouraged our young, engaged our adults, and cared for our seniors. But, we did not always have the massive number of tourists we have now–some days arriving by the thousands, and sometimes with little respect for our environment, our customs, our parking, or our neighborhoods. We have reached (perhaps overreached) a saturation point. Many of our residents feel they are treated like second-class citizens in service to the visitors. We need to find a balance between economic growth and quality of life. How we spend our city’s and county’s money (whether on advertising or on community programs, for example) will be a measure of how much we are committed to finding that balance.
Q. What do you personally love most about Monroe County and the Florida Keys?
A. From the moment I turn onto Card Sound Road heading south, I can feel it … the spirit of the Keys. Life slows down, nature takes center stage, people help other people, and sometimes we stop and just admire it all. I am always reminded of the Conch Republic’s phrase: We are “a Sovereign State of Mind.”
Q. What troubles you the most about today’s Monroe County and the Florida Keys?
A. Once upon an island, we were a visionary people, with a focus on creative thinking and acting. Lately, we have become a reactive community. Now more of our collective efforts are used to fixed errors or omissions of the past than to envision and bring into being the possibilities of the future. Personalities have too often substituted for principles, and we are moving into an economically and socially divided community – it is time to come together with common purpose.
Q. What planning or political mistakes do you personally believe were the worst to be inflicted on the Keys over the past decade?
A.Not facing up to the available, affordable housing crisis years ago.The failure to diversify our economy and have a strategic economic development plan
Not implementing the trial period of a pedestrian-only zone on a small portion of Duval on weekends which precipitated loss of major local businesses
The failure to have or follow a current, scientifically-informed plan for environmental sustainability including alternate energy sources and response to sea-level rise
Q. Who is your favorite character in the history of the keys?
A. Sir Peter Anderson, who took a bit of whimsy (and some righteous indignation) and made a whole nation out of it.
Q. Who is your least favorite character?
A. Bum Farto – sullied our image but left us with a never-to-be-answered question: Where’s Bum Farto?
Q. What is your favorite book?
Q. What is your favorite movie?
Casablanca
Q. What is your favorite quote?
Ericka Brindl Bishop: “You can make it if you focus on connections, not on differences.”
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