Fractures

The cracks are beginning to appear. Every election cycle brings them out because politics is a full contact sport. What surprises us this year is not as much the fractures that are beginning to appear in individual campaigns, but in the larger organized parties that are supposed to represent Republicans and Democrats.

While we were enjoying some needed rest, the local Ronald Reagan Republican Club released a list of endorsements before the Republican candidates have had a chance to narrow the field during the Republican Primary. Is the because Art Otero, who has been a long standing Ronald Reagan Republican Club member is looking for a public boost? We have heard from other long time Republican committee members that they are upset that these endorsements went out because this has caused the other Republicans in the race to become very upset with their own party and has only heightened the infighting in the club. The endorsements did give an indication that the Republicans are not looking favorably at incumbent candidates this year. Bill Lane did not get the nod, and as far as we can tell is not getting much support from the rest of his party.

Our real problem with the endorsements made by the Republican party are that they made endorsements in Non-Partisan races. City races are not supposed to be controlled or influenced by parties, but once again a party has stepped in to try to change the outcome of the race. This is probably the best reason that city races should be party affiliated races so those in parties with less ethical standards have less control. Of course this was something that the Kissimmee City Commission refused to even discuss during the charter review banter, which is interesting because all but one of the sitting commissioners is a Republican.

The Democrats have their own dilemmas even if they are working to keep them out of the spotlight. While the Democrats are doing their best to stay out of the limelight before their primary contest, the invasion of Republicans into the mist has upset many in the party. The District 5 race on the Democrat side has Byron Hennecy and Chuck Dunnick who both switched to the Democrat Party to run. While some of the party faithful were concerned that Jonathan Harrell lacked the ability to put together a winning campaign, e-mails to us show that they have have been impressed with his campaign over the past several months. It has been reported to us that both Republican and Democrat party members were shocked by the "August Surprise" the Harrell campaign produced this past week with a website that is complete with videos of the candidate explaining his positions. After its publication of the website on another blog, the e-mails started to pour in and it seems it has led many to believe that Harrell has a lock on the race which has upset others in the race.

We have no idea about who will win, but all the bickering has left us a little annoyed that once again background politics have taken over and ideas on what will help Osceola County are not being discussed. There have been many loose campaign promises made besides the old "Leadership and Experience" line that we would like to hear more about, but it seems that once again we are going to have to put up with campaigns that focus on crying about what others on doing instead of putting the focus on their own campaigns for not being able to close the deal and win the election.