The 2015 Mayoral Election?

[mtraininjax]

Getting some pretty consistent commercials from Lenny Curry these days and Bishop still thinks he has a chance at this thing, would be good to get a thread going for 2015 Mayoral Race asap.

[JeffreyS]

I am not excited for a Brown second term but he will be reelected.

[Ocklawaha]

From the Tampa Bay Times - 6:24.PM, Thursday, December 25th, 2014

Remember when former Bill Clinton aide Alvin Brown emerged as the great, bright light of a Democratic party coming back to life when he won the race for mayor in heavily Republican Jacksonville in 2011?  With a coalition of pragmatic, Chamer of Commerce Republicans and Democrats, Brown's victory looked like a sure sign that the tea party had damaged the GOP.

Now check out this must-read in the Times-Union:

It was spring 2011, and Peter Rummell, a powerful Northeast Florida Republican fundraiser, hastily gathered nearly 40 friends in a room at the downtown Hyatt.

Rummell made a surprising announcement: he would personally give $150,000 to help elect Alvin Brown, the underdog Democratic candidate for mayor. Within minutes, his pledge was matched by the other downtown business and civic leaders in attendance — many of whom, like Rummell, were registered Republicans but reluctant to support GOP candidate Mike Hogan's hard-line conservative campaign in the runoff against Brown.

It proved a major milestone in Brown's unlikely victory in a Republican-leaning town, a win that was buoyed by Rummell's political action committee, which ultimately raised $431,356.

Rummell plans to enlist his financial might once again in 2015 — but this time, it won't be for Brown.

In a sharp pivot, he offered a blistering assessment of Brown's first term.

"He does not know how to manage. That's clear," Rummell told the Times-Union in an interview Friday. "He has no courage ... He's wimped out. He's deferred to City Council. It's embarrassing the way he's handled himself."

Rummell — a former Disney and St. Joe Co. executive and a driving force behind Jacksonville's highly touted One Spark festival — is throwing his support behind Florida GOP Chairman Lenny Curry.

Curry, in a statement to the Times-Union, was coy about whether he plans to run but said Rummell's support was encouraging.

[Charles Hunter]

So far we know that Curry's father and wife like him - that's the only ads we've seen.  And this guy who has been Chairman of the GOP claims to be "not a politician".  Really?  Dissemble much?  At least Mr. Bishop has taken positions on some of the issues.

I supported Brown (after Audrey Moran was eliminated), but am unlikely to do so this time around.  But, unless Mr. Curry's positions align with mine - heck, if he has any positions - I won't be voting for Lenny. 

[tufsu1]

I supported Brown (after Audrey Moran was eliminated), but am unlikely to do so this time around.  But, unless Mr. Curry's positions align with mine - heck, if he has any positions - I won't be voting for Lenny. 

based on his 5-minute interview on This Week in Jacksonville last week, he has no positions

[Charles Hunter]

But his daddy and wife like him ... isn't that enough?

[vicupstate]

I am not excited for a Brown second term but he will be reelected.

I wouldn't bet the mortgage on that. Brown has lost his business and GOP-oriented support that he had last time. Peyton got elected on empty platitudes too, so don't think that that won't work for Curry. 

[urbanlibertarian]

The mayor has not supported any tax increases that I'm aware of.  How can Curry get the Republican base to turn out and vote for him over Brown?

[copperfiend]

The mayor has not supported any tax increases that I'm aware of.  How can Curry get the Republican base to turn out and vote for him over Brown?

The anti-Sharia law/abortion clinic bombing jokes platform didn't work for Hogan. So don't think he will go in that direction.

[Ocklawaha]

Peyton was an empty platitude.

[vicupstate]

The mayor has not supported any tax increases that I'm aware of.  How can Curry get the Republican base to turn out and vote for him over Brown?

When offered the choice between a Republican and a imitation Republican, they will pick the real one.   Brown has bet the farm on winning over  the Tea Party, while ignoring the ones that elected him in the first place.  That is not a winning strategy.   

[mtraininjax]

Bill Bishop proposes raising taxes.....should be popular among republicans.....

Mayoral candidate Bill Bishop says sales tax is best way to eliminate pension woes

City Councilman Bill Bishop, who is running for mayor, said Monday during a forum hosted by the Meninak Club of Jacksonville that putting a half-cent sales tax on the ballot would be the best way to shore up the finances of Jacksonville's pension system.
Bishop prefaced his comments with the adage that there's no free lunch.

There's no such thing as a free pension, either," Bishop told 109 attendees who got a taste of the pension debate playing out at City Hall.

Sitting next to Bishop at the panel discussion, Chris Hand, chief of staff for Mayor Alvin Brown, reiterated Brown's support for a financing plan that involves the city and JEA borrowing $240 million and paying it up front into the Police and Fire Pension Fund.

Supporters of that proposal say it will enable the city to improve the pension fund's finances without any tax or fee increases. The city would use savings from pension reform to pay off its $120 million in debt, and JEA would pay off its $120 million by getting a reduction in its annual contributions to City Hall.

When panel moderator Melissa Ross, who hosts First Coast Connect on WJCT, asked Hand what the funding source would be if the city-JEA financing deal doesn't happen, Hand said "we're a long way from the hypothetical you describe."

Hand said the proposal with JEA offers upsides to both the city and the city-owned utility because it will help City Hall accomplish comprehensive pension reform while also benefitting JEA's finances.

"This is one of the closest things to a win-win you can see in city government," Hand said.

But Bishop said reducing the JEA's contributions to City Hall would take a toll on the city paying for services that already have suffered in recent years with cuts in police officers, library hours, park maintenance and road repairs.

If the city gets less from JEA to help pay for everyday services, "the money has to come from somewhere else," Bishop said.

The utility's contributions over a 30-year period would be $276 million less under the proposed financing plan, according to city projections.

Bishop said the economy is recovering so tax revenue is increasing, but not fast enough for growth to solve the city's financial problems. He said a sales tax spreads the cost widely among residents as well as those who come into Duval County for shopping.

A half-cent sales tax would generate about $63 million and it would come with an expiration date if voters approved it. But state law currently doesn't allow a sales tax geared specifically toward paying down pension debt. State lawmakers have been cool to the idea so there's nothing in the works to schedule an election.

Former City Councilman Matt Carlucci, one of the panelists at the Meninak Club, said a sales tax should be reserved for big community projects, not pension payments. He helped craft the JEA financing plan and said the economic is coming back strongly.

He said the city is on the verge of getting pension reform done and cannot afford to bog down in "paralysis of analysis" when it's so close.

Police and Fire Pension Fund Executive Director John Keane, who was the fourth panelist, said the pension fund is not particular about the source of the funding. He said local governments across the state face unfunded pension costs so it would make sense for the Legislature to offer a sales tax option to them.

The debate over how to pay for pension reform stems from how to pay $400 million over 10 years in extra payments to the Police and Fire Pension Fund so its $1.62 billion unfunded pension liability goes down faster. The sooner that debt is reduced, the less it will cost the city in the long run, just as consumers benefits from paying off credit card debt faster.

An alternative to $400 million over 10 years is to pay $300 million up-front so the pension fund can immediately invest it.

Before City Council figures out that payment method, it must reach agreement with the Police and Fire Pension Fund on a wide-ranging bill that changes pension benefits for current police and firefighters as well as new hires.

A key difference between City Council and the Police and Fire Pension Fund board is how long it will be before council could impose further cuts to pension benefits for current police and firefighters.

City Council voted in December to allow that to potentially happen in three years, which council members said is in line with state law for collective bargaining. The pension fund board put that at 10 years, which is shorter than its current agreement with the city going through 2030.

At the Meninak meeting, Hand told Bishop that the city had just received a legal memo from Jim Linn, an attorney specializing in Florida pension law, stating the city could voluntarily waive its right to impose benefit changes for a 10-year period if it chose to do so.

[Jimmy]

Bill Bishop proposes raising taxes.....should be popular among republicans.....

Perhaps only among Republicans who lack reading comprehension skills.  His proposal is to put it up to a vote, just as we've voted on other sales-tax increases over the years.

"putting a half-cent sales tax on the ballot"

[tufsu1]

Bill Bishop proposes raising taxes.....should be popular among republicans.....

stated another way....Bill Bishop is the only candidate bold enough to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear! 

[JeffreyS]

Just spent  a while chatting with the mayor at lunch. He was shaking hands and and talking with the people at corner bakery therein Brooklyn. I would say he was met pretty warmly by the entire place. He was very positive about a few announcements in the next month.