Does Gaffney support mean anything?

[Jax native]

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/182781

From the article; "There is some conflation in Jones' statement; the mayor has yet to come out in support of either the HRO expansion or even of the Chamber's proposed anti-discrimination ordinance. That said, Gaffney, in attempting to provide context for a vote 3 years ago that was roundly maligned, has set himself up as a target of African American politicians and Democrats who see him as an opportunist.

Gaffney's break with the party began last year, when he stepped down from City Council to run for State House against Reggie Fullwood.

As WJXT  reported, the Caucus chose Fullwood, who was a known quantity. This didn't sit well with Gaffney.

Gaffney was looking forward to working with the Democratic Party as a state representative, but caucus leaders have already expressed a different sentiment.

"It's very detrimental to the future," Gaffney said at the time. "How can we win? How can we work together if there is no trust and continuity?"

"This type of leadership and behavior only encourages acrimony, division and polarization of the party, and only continues the status quo," Gaffney said. "It should be a fair, level playing field for everyone."

Meanwhile, in 2015, Gaffney's brother Reggie is in a contentious Council race against George Spencer, Corrine Brown's preferred candidate.

A debate that we covered earlier this week saw Spencer  describing Gaffney as a "lifelong Republican who switched parties and ran to take control of the district" for "Republican friends" to whom he "owes favors."

That debate ended with a prayer from Reggie Gaffney.

"Father, I ask you to remove Satan from this room."

Reggie Gaffney has had his own well-publicized issues with Medicaid overbilling, which was an issue in the debate described above. Johnny had his own similar issues in 2004, regarding fraudulent claims. He apologized afterwards, weathered the storm, and got elected to Council in 2007.

Expect a vigorous countermessaging from the Alvin Brown campaign in the coming days. As well, expect George Spencer to capitalize on Johnny Gaffney supporting the Republican mayoral candidate.

The gaffney siblings have has a long history of unethical politics for decades.  I'm unsure Gaffney " weathered the storm" of fraudulent medicare claims entirely.  As we have seen, winning an election on City Council (ummm, Kimberly Daniels) no longer gives you automatic credence.  I know personally of scams Johnny Gaffney has tried to operate and failed a few.  He owes so many favors, he needs to support many well known "white" good ole boy,  power pushers for the rest of his life to pay back. 

[RattlerGator]

Hmmmm . . .

He owes so many favors, he needs to support many well known "white" good ole boy,  power pushers for the rest of his life to pay back.

Maybe he knows how to work with a "diversity" of constituencies?

We've all been told that "diversity" is a good thing, right?

And . . . I mean . . ., he does have a right to be a free-thinking black man, doesn't he?

[Jax native]

He does have a right to be a thinking 'black' man.  It's troubling he has thrown the race card around for years.  The time he promised a small 'white' construction' company, to allow him to be CEO and he promised, he could get them 'minority' work for COJ as much as possible, while he was on City Council!   

Yes, he has a right to think, but he doesn't have a right to commit illegal and unethical acts while he was in office.  Endorsing Curry, was nothing more than he is getting something out of it.  To complain about Northwest Jax. needing attention, while he did nothing to two terms is disingenuous.   

[Jimmy]

I think it's a net-negative for Curry, actually.  You take the endorsement of a known liar who is on the outs with the Democratic party and may be looking for retribution... and a new gig come July.  Yeah, this was not Curry's finest play for support.  Didn't Reggie Fullwood whoop him something like 4-1 in their primary? 

[finehoe]

That's my question about any endorsement.  Does anybody actually vote for a candidate because another politician endorses him/her?

[Cheshire Cat]

Gaffney's support doesn't mean a dadgum thing.  Seriously, it doesn't.

[Jimmy]

fh, that's a good question.  I put a lot of stock in Bill Bishop's endorsement of Alvin Brown.  But I was pulling hard for Bishop...

[Cheshire Cat]

fh, I think the Bishop endorsement means a lot in that he actually garnered over 30,000 votes that can help make or break an election depending upon where those votes go with Bill out of the race.  As far a other political endorsements, if you are running a far right campaign like Curry is, having the support of big names who ring the right bells for GOP hardliners may seem to be of importance but the fact is that those who vote party will vote party regardless.  All the local name endorsing as well as newspaper endorsements in the end really don't influence that many people. 

[Jax native]

Many endorsements are wonderful, with Bill Bishop being on.  Curry having a bunch of 'white' Republicans ( John Delaney, John Peyton, Peter Rummell)  show up at his Avondale opening headquarters today means nothing.  It means the Republicans who were going to vote for him, still win.  If they are are concerned enough about voting.

With the Gaffney clan, Jimmy said it best "I think it's a net-negative for Curry, actually."   There is too much back history from them and none of it is good.