A few Republicans will go to the polls next Tuesday to determine whether Sullins Stuart or Sonny McCoy will face Democrat Sheila Chamberlain and unaffiliated Jerry Coleman in November for the County Commission seat being vacated by Shirley Freeman.
In the Republican primary on Sept. 5, McCoy came out on top with 2016 votes to Stuart's 1656, but that was not enough to avoid a runoff on Oct. 3. Attorney Jules Margalli came in third and has thrown his support to McCoy.
Only 21 percent of the registered Republicans voted. Based on that dismal record, don't be surprised if only about 50 people turn out to vote Tuesday. This runoff is the only item on the ballot. And there's hardly any passion associated with this race. Voters just don't seem to care very much who serves on the County Commission. And why should they? We have observed here before that, with the wave of incorporation sweeping the Keys, the County Commission is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Soon it will be relegated to managing the airports and the libraries.
With the exception of Mary Kay Reich, our current crop of County Commissioners often seem, at best, bumbling and, at worse, simply clueless. Look at them:
George Neugent, a convicted bar brawler. Nora Williams, who always seems "troubled" by something or other, but can't seem to make solutions happen. Poor Wilhelmina Harvey, who is approaching her 90th birthday in a perpetual state of stun. And ditzy Shirley Freeman, who decided not to run for reelection when she learned that she would have an opponent.
This bunch's defining moment as legislators came last year when they tried desperately to take over the multi-million-dollar budget of the County Mosquito Control Board, a duly-elected body.
George said he wanted to do it because some of the Mosquito Control Commissioners got too much bad press. Nora said she wanted to do it because she was "troubled" by something or other. Wilhelmina didn't have a clue about what was going on but voted for takeover anyway. Shirley said she wanted to do it because she had some "secret" information— information that, to this day, she has never revealed.
Only Mary Key Reich suggested that it's really not cool for one elected body to try to pull off a hostile takeover of another elected body.
And only Key West The Newspaper consistently questioned, in our quiet way, why these clowns would even consider trying to take on a function as important as mosquito control when they have shown that they can't even manage what's already on their plates!
The takeover move finally failed when the Commission's own consultant— who got paid thousands of taxpayer dollars— told them that it was just plain dumb. Duh!
Of course, we all now know that this whole exercise was never about mosquito control; it was all about trying to punish the current crop of Mosquito Control Commissioners for daring to clean up what had been one of the most corrupt public agencies in the Keys. Based on the relative efficiency of the two agencies today, however, more than one observer has suggested that maybe the Mosquito Board should take over the County Commission, rather than the other way around.
If you're a Republican and you plan to vote on Tuesday, we recommend a vote for Sonny McCoy. Our rationale is this: We think McCoy can shake up this County Commission. And that would be a good thing.
Sullins Stuart is an intelligent, likable candidate. But he is Shirley Freeman's handpicked boy to maintain the status quo. And maintaining the status quo on the County Commission would be a bad thing.