It happened in St. Augustine, in 2016.
A fleet of Learjet-riding, Gucci-wearing, money-hungry lobbyists is spending Big Money to influence one of our local elections in a town of 14,000.
In the immortal words of my mentor and American Bar Association Judges' Journal co-author, the late U.S. Department of Labor Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge James L. Guill:
"Wonder why?"
For the first time in our once quiet little 'ole burg's five centuries of recorded history, millionaires and billionaires are trying to buy a local election.
Right here in St. Augustine, Florida.
Yes.
Right here in River City.
Thanks to the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in the Citizens' United case and lax laws, a mysterious group of SuperPACS is spending tens of thousands of dollars to influence the Mayor's race.
This has never happened before in St. Augustine: we're in our 452nd year, and it's extraordinary.
Louche lying mailers from mellifluous-sounding "Patriot" groups located far, far away.
PACS giving money to other PACS giving to other PACS to conceal who wants a new Mayor.
Deceptive, false, misleading, malicious and downright twisted assertions.
Slick mailers on 80 pound full color paper.
Pushing to vote out our reform Mayor, Nancy Shaver.
The lovely logical lady whom Governor Rick Scott praises for being "relentless" in seeking to preserve and protect our Ancient City.
Saying she's responsible for traffic congestion in a town with a 1571 Spanish town plan not intended for motor vehicles, as modified by Henry Flagler in a town unadorned by automobiles in the 1880s.
It's all her fault.
Saying she's responsible for alleged high taxes. It's all her fault. She wants to make Flagler College and Flagler Hospital, businesses and nonprofits pay their fair share of fire and garbage collection services.
How mean of her -- expecting entrenched economic interests to pay their share for services.
What's next?
Will the Secret Squirrels say she contrived the Johnstown Flood, Hurricane Matthew and is plotting to make small children eat broccoli so that she can cook them and eat them?
Who put the fox in the SuperPACs' leaders' bosoms?
Who are they?
Nancy Shaver has instituted data-based decision making.
Nancy Shaver has asked City government to be frugal.
Nancy Shaver has questioned no-bid contracts.
Nancy Shaver has called for audits of 450th contracts.
Nancy Shaver has ended the unfair hearings that developers count on to approve Planned Unit Developments (PUDs).
Nancy Shaver has stimulated project management principles never followed before.
Nancy Shaver has led the way to revise our zoning code.
Nancy Shaver has focused on our crumbling streets, pipes and flood prevention systems.
Nancy Shaver has questioned too-tall buildings, too-complacent officials and illogical policies.
Nancy Shaver has empowered City employees to do their jobs without fear or favor.
Nancy Shaver has insisted on respecting law, human rights, the environment and historic preservation.
Nancy Shaver wrote a letter to the editor in 2013, questioning the Sheriff's handling of the Michelle O'Connell case.
What ails her?
Doesn't she know St. Augustine is part of St. Johns County, the most corrupt in Florida?
Doesn't she know that the St. Johns County Sheriff, working for developers, controls our destiny?
Doesn't she know that "We, the People" are required to be pawns, deferring to powerful corporations?
Doesn't she know that Florida is run for, by and of dodgy foreign-funded developers?
Doesn't she know that local officials are expected to be lapdogs, not watchdogs?
Doesn't she know that asking questions, demanding answers and expecting democracy is not the way we do things around here?
Who does she think she is?
She must be Wonder Woman, threatening the forces of darkness.
She's opposed by a cypher, a riddle, wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a mystery, someone who no one knows, who only moved into the City earlier this year -- Hate Radio Station WFOY owner KRIS PHILLIPS. Read the "Top Ten Things to Know About Kris Phillips" list here.
So who could possibly want a new Mayor who is unqualified, uninformed and lacking a moral compass?
Could it be swinish unsophisticated rich guys with dastardly devious demented taste in ad copy?
Could it be corrupters, crybabies, ninnies, boobies, hick hacks, sad sacks, dirty tricksters?
They remind me of the scene from Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles where the Wyoming Attorney General, Hedley Lamar, played by the incomparable Harvey Korman, announces who will help him "launch an attack that will reduce Rock Ridge to ashes."
Could it be those whom FDR called "malefactors of great wealth," who would have our governments be a "mere appendage to their affairs?"
Could it be those who see our government as their cash register?
Could it be those who see public service as a punch line?
Could it be those who see We, the People as marks in a carnival shell game?
Could it be those who would destroy our pristine environment, cheapen our history and turn St. Augustine into one giant t-shirt shop, with slot machines and cruise ships?
Could it be those who made art a crime and made music a crime in our streets?
Could it be those who commit Crime in the Suites?
Could it be those who repeatedly moved for 25 years to outlaw free expression --- as recently took place at the City Attorney's request in our Loring Park, by order of the wealthy developers comprising the University of Florida Board of Trustees?
Could it be ODD TODD NEVILLE, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR," Flagler College Chancellor WILLIAM PROCTOR (meanest man in St. Augustine) and Flagler College "Associate Professor of Public Administration JOE SAVIAK a/k/a "JOE SIXPACK?"
Could it be former City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS, ex-Mayors JOE BOLES and LEN WEEKS and those who would like to turn St. Augustine into an unreasonable facsimile of Disney World while turning St. Johns County into Broward County?
Why do the heathen rage?
You tell me.
She must be a pretty effective Mayor for such putrid, putrescent, pusillanimous politicos to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to defeat her.
The formidable authoritarian forces opposed to St. Augustine's reform Mayor Nancy Shaver remind me of what FDR said on October 31, 1936;
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for [us]- and [we] welcome their hatred.
We, the People are being heard and heeded, at last, in St. Augustine, Florida.
So, who are these nasty noisome nattering nabobs of negativism?
What's in it for them?
As my mentor, former USDOL Chief Judge Nahum Litt, would say, "Cui bono?" (Who benefits)?
Quo vobis videtor?
(Latin for "how does it appear to you?")
What do y'all reckon?
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