Fort Myers, FL.
As expected, only David Lethem has filed for the G.S.D. election before the first deadline, Monday at noon. Lethem was the only candidate to go out to voters and get the 25 signatures needed to get on the ballot in November. He's running for the seat now occupied by Bob Nielson. The drop dead deadline to get on the ballot is now June 18th at noon.
Candidates now do not have to get any signatures from voters. All they need to do is pay a $25.00 filing fee. This allows candidates to avoid having to go before the voters and ask for their support. This allows candidates to avoid having to do any early explaining about their "record", if they have one. Basically, it gives them another month to stay under the radar. It gives them the opportunity to try and sneak onto the ballot. It's all legal. Legal sneakery that is.
What candidates will do now is wait until the last possible minute to see who they might be running against. It allows them to decide who they believe might be a weaker candidate which may allow them, again, to do less campaigning and explaining to the voters.
Just as an F.Y.I to all Gateway Gazette readers. I am starting a P.A.C. (political action committee) which will soon be visible on the Lee County election website. Over the next several months we will be collecting donations through the P.A.C. and using that money to support candidates like David Lethem who think like we do. We'll spend the money on signs, mailings, whatever it takes to help the right people for Gateway get elected. People that think of the residents and community first.
What we are looking for...
- We need someone willing to abolish the ridiculous employee pension program.
- We need someone to work toward building a baseball field for kids.
- We need someone willing to pester WCI and Lee County to fix Gateway Boulevard. And not a useless meaningless traffic committee.
- We need someone willing to work with the Charter school to get OUR sports teams playing in Gateway not Buckingham or Lehigh.
- We need someone to work with McGarvey development to help bring more business to Gateway and fill up all the empty space.
- We need someone that promotes more - not less - transparency in G.S.D. politics.
- We need someone to seriously consider why we need an Operations Manager and a District Manager.
