News from Alachua

Watson Switches Parties

City Manager Clovis Watson Jr. switched political parties Friday, becoming a Republican.

Just can't stand any more of the loony left.

Meanwhile,

"Alachua Wal-Mart may be delayed by county"
same paper, same day.

Common Dreams had this Thursday.

The Dirty South

Down in Florida, where the next president will probably be selected, politics are as loose and corrupt as ever
by Andrew Gumbel

No matter how lousy politics can get, it’s consoling to remember that it’s almost always worse somewhere else. The Westly-Angelides gubernatorial primary was about as distasteful a race to the bottom as we’ve seen in this state, a textbook example of what happens when campaign fund-raising trumps any pretense at meaningful debate, and negative advertising tries to fill the void of public indifference. But at least neither candidate stooped so low as to try to have the other arrested.

Over in Florida, where the politics are almost invariably lousier, no such indignity has been spared a state assembly candidate by the name of Charlie Grapski. Grapski, an energetic proponent of ethics reform and a political scientist who teaches at the University of Florida in Gainesville, found himself under arrest last month for the heinous – heinous! – offense of tape-recording a conversation with a public official in the small nearby city of Alachua.

Thanks to Nordy at Howard Empowered People