I'm running for Supervisor of Elections of St. Johns County, Florida

I'm Ed Slavin. I'm running for the Democratic nomination to be St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections. I've lived in St. Augustine for 20 years.

Only child of Ed Slavin, Sr., a World War II 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper (volunteered day after Pearl Harbor), et ux, Mary Elizabeth Donlon Slavin -- proud descendants of immigrant refugees, who fled Polish pogroms and Irish potato famine -- both activist union organizers.

My mom told me the chances of my being born were less than one in 100,000: it took twelve years.

I've been a journalist and a lawyer.  Four times, I swore oaths to uphold our Constitution, working for three Democratic Senators and two sagacious administrative law judges.  I represented nine federal ALJs as clients,  empowering American workers to speak out against injustice.

Disbarred in 2006 after zealous advocacy.Tennessee Supreme Court called me "brilliant," as the St. Augustine Record editorialized in 2006, after I was attacked for reporting the dumping of a landfill in a lake by America's Oldest City. The Record wrote that I've accomplished much in life, including the 1983 declassification of the largest mercury pollution event in the history of our planet.  After exposing the City of St. Augustine's Illegal dumping of a landfill in a lake, I was named an "environmental hero" by Folio Weekly.  40,000 cubic yards of contaminated waste is now in a Class I landfill, not trucked back in 2000 truckloads to Lincolnville, as some of our misguided City and State officials actually proposed.

Nevertheless, I persisted, supporting a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, first proposed by Mayor Walter Fraser in 1939.  I've helped:

• stop voting rights violations -- the right to vote for Mayor remains intact
• stop gerrymandering and discriminatory redistricting, backed by constitutional law, activists and our St. Johns County Commission
• stop purchase of a no-bid luxury Bell Jet helicopter for $1.8 million, winning a refund of the deposit
• call out County Administrator's mismanagement, including ill-treatment of women; he's been fired
• report maladministration
• achieve public interest victories
• elect reformers
• advance equality 

Have I made mistakes? Yes.

I always spoke for underdogs.

USDOL Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt (1979-1995) added:
... what were Mr. Slavin's alleged "failings?" He complained the Department of Labor has failed to enforce almost all of the labor protective positions it is charged to enforce, has spent years deciding workers' cases that were supposed to have final decisions within 90 days, and  deliberately s[a]t on cases" fr years.
Ed "complained on behalf of his clients that they were entitled to decisions that could be appealed to courts, and that the delays were deliberate and unconscionable. There is ample evidence to support both charges, including that many of the delays were ordered by political appointees....."
What Tennessee and the Department of Labor did was get rid of a qualified advocate who was outspoken about the failings of the system and those who administered that system. It was they who have eroded the public confidence in the judicial system.
St. Augustine officials should listen respectfully and answer his questions about environmental crimes and other subjects.

Ed Bricker wrote: "Ed Slavin zealously represented me against Hanford, Washington nuclear weapons plant employers. Working for reforms to protect American workers, Ed Slavin put his career on the line to rescue others.  I was the daily victim of a hostile working environment (joined by the local union I served as steward). Federal OSHA's Assistant Regional Administrator John Spear uncovered illegal surveillance, sabotaged breathing-apparatus and daily torment. Hanford managers branded me a "mole" (spy) for reporting life-threatening environmental, safety and health hazards, working with Congressman John Dingell's investigators.

Retired FBI, HUD and EPA Senior Special Agent Robert E. Tyndall wrote the Record that I "saved [his] life," stating:
"I applaud your newspaper for defending Ed Slavin and the First Amendment....
"Late in my career, I would not and could not sign my name to a report that resulted in a cover-up of major criminal wrongdoing by highly placed EPA officials. I was left with no choice but to file an environmental whistleblower case. Other than Ed Slavin, I was encouraged to persist only by my wife, Lynda, Congressman John Dingell's office (whose investigator referred me to Ed Slavin), and then-journalist Tony Snow. Ed completely documented EPA's attempted cover-up of $100 million in acid rain research fraud, conflicts of interest, waste and abuse.
"Ed represented me in my U.S. DOL environmental whistleblower case against EPA and its inspector general, winning a precedent-setting case that protected future environmental investigators' rights, reversing two DOL judges....
Trust me, Ed Slavin is not for sale. The First Amendment is not dead, yet.

I would be honored to be your St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
edforstjohnscounty@gmail.com