And...They're Off!

On January 7, we're having an election to fill two Commission seats, and there are three candidates.  They are listed on the Village website as Mac Kennedy, Rafael Ciordia, and Virginia (Ginny) O'Halpin.  This is not alphabetical order, the lady isn't first, and I don't know what accounts for the order of candidates listed.  It's possible it reflects the order of when candidates turned in their paperwork to declare themselves.

Mac Kennedy hit the ground running, BP resident-wise.  He made himself well known as soon as he moved here, which was probably around five years ago.   He's been on a board, he's volunteered in other ways, he comes to meetings, he has strong opinions, and he's outspoken about them.  In full disclosure sort of thing, I have become friendly with Mac.  I like his brashness, I like his style-- especially his writing style and word usage--, and I have complete confidence that he has the best welfare of the Village centrally at heart.  I don't always agree with him about particulars, but he cares very much about the Village.  And perhaps most critically right now, I know that Mac fully understands the disruption and corruption that are Tracy Truppman, and he wants her displaced.  There is nothing more important and more urgent in Biscayne Park right now.

I know nothing at all about Rafael Ciordia.  My friend, Chuck Ross, knows who Rafael is, and he pointed him out to me at one or two of the most recent Commission meetings.  I've never heard of Rafael.  If it weren't for the fact that Chuck knows everyone, he wouldn't have heard of him, either.  I'm assuming, because Rafael is an approved BP Commission candidate, that Rafael lives in BP.  He has no involvement with the Village in any way.  I have no reason to think he knows anything about the Village, apart from the fact that he lives here, presumably.  I'm going to make one guess, though.  I'm going to guess that he knows Tracy Truppman, or she knows him.  Rafael is exactly like Will Tudor, or Betsy Wise.  These are people who are totally disconnected from the Village, except that they happen to live here, and Tracy finds them, persuades them to run, and they then become bobbleheads.  Jenny Johnson-Sardella could have been somewhat more independent, but she wasn't.  So Rafael is fairly standard Tracy Truppman material.  Tracy demands to control everything.  For a little while, it appeared that maybe Will Tudor had developed some independence, but he's surrendered it.  He's back to being Mama's good boy.  So Tracy only needs one more bobblehead, and I'm guessing this is where Rafael comes in.

I've known Ginny O'Halpin, at a distance, for several years.  I don't know her well.  I don't know when she and her late husband moved here, but they alternated their time between here and one or two other places for at least a few years.  As best I know, Ginny is here full time now.  Ginny is not involved with the Village.  She has not been on any regular boards (she might have been on one or two ad hoc committees), and she does not generally come to meetings.  In that sense, she looks, superficially, like Tracy, Jenny, Will, or Betsy.  Or Rafael.  Except I do know Ginny at least a little, and she's a very nice person.  And as often as I've spoken to her, which isn't often, she always seemed to care about the Park.  And Chuck has confidence in her.  But there's a really weird factor about Ginny, and it cements my confidence in her candidacy: Milt Hunter.  Milt Hunter?  Yes, Milt Hunter.  The rumor I heard is that it was Milt Hunter who persuaded Ginny to run.  So, who cares what Milt Hunter thinks about anything, including who should run for Commission?  That's what you're asking yourself, right?  It's a good question.  And let me tell you the answer.  As best I understand, Milt Hunter hates my guts.  I have guesses as to why he does, but he never said.  We used to be "friends," but then, he suddenly hated my guts.  So we weren't friends any more.  And as part of his declaration of enemyship, he dedicated himself to keeping me from getting re-elected to the Commission.  Milt worked very, very hard to get Tracy Truppman and her then two stooges elected.  He couldn't think about anything else, and he couldn't think straight.  He was in a blind frenzy to do anything he could to get Tracy et al elected.  And he succeeded.  But then, poor Milt Hunter came to realize he had made a really big mistake in getting Tracy/Jenny/Will elected to the Commission.  He's railed furiously against them since.  And against Betsy Wise.  (Funny, and sad, enough, on top of whatever Milt was so mad at me about before, he then got even more mad at me, because I didn't defeat his efforts to get Tracy elected.  This is what I mean about a blind frenzy.  Mrs Bonadies, my high school calculus teacher, used to ask students who got certain things wrong "Are you deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid, Mr_____?"  And you have to read that with a southern accent.)  All Milt wants-- now-- is to displace Tracy and her domination over the Village.  So if Milt Hunter got Ginny O'Halpin to run, then that tells me something about whence Ginny is coming, and what she wants.  And doesn't want.  And that's what I need to know right now.

I'm very happy to vote for Mac Kennedy.  I'm going to campaign for him.  I hope I hear something from Ginny O'Halpin, and assuming I get confirmation of what I already suspect about her, I'll be happy to vote for her, and campaign for her, too.  Rafael Ciordia?  No.