infinite improbability

Naming names

Tommy over at TampaBlogs asked me to expound on my rant about local politics in my random entry of a few days ago. So, what follows is a discussion on local politics in one county in Florida (Manatee County), and may or may not be of interest to most of my readers.

I'm not quite sure how much I should or shouldn't say on the issue in question because some of what I know isn't general public knowledge. The brief summary is that Donna Hayes is the Republican candidate for the Manatee County Commission District 5 seat. Hayes is also the current chair of the Manatee County Republican Executive Committee, hereafter referred to as the Executive Committee or just the Committee. Paul Sharff was the vice-chair of the Committee under Donna Hayes for a number of years, and then when Hayes decided not to run for reelection as chair, Sharff was elected. He later stepped down for "family reasons" and Hayes was elected to replace him. The part of the story that the public knows is that several weeks ago, Sharff came out and publicly endorsed the Independent candidate for the County Commission, Julie Aranibar. Sharff stated that the reason he was doing so was that Hayes had misused her office and the county Republican headquarters to gain and advantage over her primary opponents, basically accussing her of unethical behavior. Sharff's accusations are bunk.

As for what I referenced in my previous entry, basically, Sharff and Hayes disagreed on several things, including whether or not the Executive Committee should endorse one Republican candidate over another in the primaries. Hayes said no, Sharff said yes. Anyway, as an upshot of their differing opinions on that as well as other issues pertaining to the direction of the party, Sharff started trying to pack the Executive Committee with his supporters, with the result that then Hayes started recruiting her people to join. Sharff criticizes Hayes for trying to stack the Committee, but he conveniently ignores the fact that he was the one who was doing it first. Anyway, Paul Sharff is a business partner with Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells' wife, and is a political ally of Wells. One of the people that Sharff was trying to get on the Executive Committee was Wells' mother-in-law (the mother of Sharff's business partner). It's here that I should issue the disclaimer that I have absolutely nothing against the Sheriff's mother-in-law, from what I know of her from various political functions she's a very nice woman. (end disclaimer) If more than one person is running for Precinct Committeeman or Committeewoman, then the existing members vote to chose between the two. Before the vote when said mother-in-law was up for election on the Committee, someone (I don't know who, except that it was a Hayes supporter and not the person Sharff thinks it was) circulated a list of which person to vote for in contested precincts, and the aforementioned mother-in-law was not on the list. She ended up not being elected, and everything hit the metaphorical fan (I don't have permission to elaborate). Obviously, they haven't gotten over that event because reading between the lines, it's at the center of a lot of Sharff's criticisms of Hayes, and as I said before, it's one of the main reasons why he is doing what he's doing.

Fast forward to election year 2004, Donna Hayes decides to run for the open County Commission seat, wins the Republican primary, and suddenly instead of supporting the Republican candidate, Sharff, the Sheriff, and their buddies are suddenly actively opposing the Republican candidate for office and spreading bold faced lies about her to the media. Sharff has a massive ego and cannot stand it when something doesn't go his way, and all he gives a flip about is his own self-advancement. Hayes is a strong woman who he is unable to control, and since he can't control her and can't use her to advance himself politically, he'd rather try to destroy her, no matter what it does to the Republican party (despite claiming that he's acting in the best interests of the party). Donna Hayes is not capable of the sort of devious scheming that he's accusing her of, she's a woman who truly has the best interests of the citizens of Manatee County at heart, and she would make an excellent County Commissioner.