Speaking at a political forum here sponsored by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of the Florida Keys on Sept. 21, County Commission candidate Sullins Stuart said, "I have a mental illness"— and went on to explain that he suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). While ADD affects different people in different ways, Stuart's achievements make it obvious that he has been in no way disabled by this affliction.
His admission, while politically, naive, should have been no big deal.
But the banner headline that appeared on page one of the Key West Citizen on Sept. 22 was a big deal. That headline simply reported what Stuart had said— but it probably cost him the election.
The headline, which appeared just 10 days before Stuart's runoff election with Charles "Sonny" McCoy to determine which Republican candidate will face Democrat Sheila Chamberlain and independent Jerry Coleman in the general election in November, blared: "Commission Candidate Admits To `Mental Illness,'"
If that headline caused just seven voters to switch their vote from Stuart to McCoy (McCoy won by 12 votes), the headline writer changed the outcome of the election, just as Attorney David Paul Horan changed the outcome of the Republican primary election on Sept. 5 in which Michael "Mick" Barnes lost to Mark Kohl by 105 votes.
Just three days before that election, Horan ran a large ad in the Citizen viciously attacking Barnes. If that ad swayed just 53 votes that would have otherwise gone to Barnes— and it is likely that it did— Horan, a supporter of incumbent State Attorney Kirk Zuelch, personally selected the Republican who will face Zuelch, a Democrat, in November. That selection, of course, was the weakest of the two Republican candidates running.
The difference between the Horan ad and the Citizen headline about Stuart's "mental illness", however, is that the headline at least appeared early enough for Stuart and his supporters to respond.
And the editors of the Citizen tried hard to mitigate the damage. An editorial in the Citizen on Sept. 29 called Stuart's admission honest, open and refreshing. Also on Sept. 29, Solares Hill— owned by the Citizen— devoted almost the entire front page to endorsing Stuart and explaining ADD.
But it was too little too late.
Of course, our page one headline on Sept. 29 was "McCoy is KWTN's Pick For County Commish In Republican Runoff On Tuesday." We editorialized that a vote for Stuart was a vote for more of the same. We speculated that McCoy would shake up a Commission that needs some shaking.
Could our endorsement have swayed seven voters who might have otherwise voted for Stuart to vote for McCoy? We'll probably never know, will we?