Mayor's office and full disclosure?????

[DuvalHusky]

What I find the most interesting about this Administration is their political naivety. Their policies are vacuous or nonexistent however I am not most surprised by that, I expected it. I am surprised they continue to alienate themselves from those responsible for Brown's election: Republican voters in the urban core who made the decision NOT to support the devil they knew, Mike Hogan AND mobilized African-American voters. Rather, Brown is trying to conduct as a hard fiscal Conservative in an attempt to appeal to an electorate that will never vote for him. Could be he believes himself popular and listens to bunk such as the following T-U excerpt from the UNF poll conducted in April.

746 registered Duval County voters were polled from March 27-April 3, well prior to Tuesday's news that Rick Santorum is dropping his presidential bid.

"What it is showing is that both parties need to get their voters out," said Matt Corrigan, head of UNF's political science department.

Brown's approval rating is at 75 percent, up from 61 percent in March. Corrigan said Brown is attracting voters from both major parties.

"I think of the historic nature of his election attracts Democrats, and his budget cutting attracts Republicans," he said.

Corrigan is professionally blessed in that for some reason the T-U continues to reference him as a local elections expert despite the fact his opinions are rarely if ever supported by the statistics generated by his own polls. Yet, he enjoys the attention he receives engaging in pure political speculation. 

I'll offer some reasons why Brown's poll number were high in this poll and why I suspect they are much lower, especially now. First, registered voters were polled and not those identifying themselves as actual voters. In the odd year election cycle of 2011, how many registered voters turned out as a percentage of the vote? It was LOW. An apathetic electorate is not one on which you trust your approval ratings nor should a political scientist being making blanket statements on such a sample. 

Secondly, the media love affair with Brown is ending and the inept Brown team has no answer for it. The T-U is finally conducting some actual journalism as a result of being denied public records requests. Further, I think even the T-U is sick of listening to the same "best and brightest", "public-private partnerships", "downtown grocery store" routine they have been getting for 18 months. (that's 3 drinks for anyone counting) For the record on this one, I'm disappointed with The Folio. They have been slow to cast off their partisan shackles, recognize Brown for what he is, and start digging.

Lastly, and I say this bluntly but not with disrespect, someone close to Brown needs to shut Brown up. He continues to go around town on the stump and, when he does answer questions, makes outlandish promises he has no ability or intent to keep. I understand why he doesn't want to go off stump: He can't help himself when he goes off script (a common affliction of elected officials. If afflicted, one can be treated with hard work). However someone needs to become Brown's permanent spokesperson and work with Brown to expand yet control his messaging.

As a democrat and a progressive, I am disappointed with Brown's politics and policies. He needs to open himself up to suggestions and compliment his openness with doers who know local government. 

And with that, I'm putting away my soap box!