On Tuesday, February 16th, starting at 1:30 P.M. was the reorganizational meeting of the Alachua County Commission, in which new commissioner, Susan Baird, was sworn into office.  Susan is the first Republican elected to the Alachua County Commission since George Dekle, 22 years ago.

Traditionally, the reorganizational meeting is a respectful ceremony in which the current commissioners welcome aboard the new members and wish them well.  Tough politics and policy is not generally a part of such a meeting.  Not until yesterday, anyway, when liberal, Democrat Commissioner Paula DeLaney lost her mind.

Paula just couldn't stand that the day, and the ceremony was not about her.  Instead of offering a simple congratulations and welcome aboard to Susan Baird, Paula launched into a 30 minute tirade of castigating every conservative Republican value and tea party value that says that government has gone too far and too fast to take away our money and our freedoms.  Paula DeLaney sat up there and told the 54% of the people that voted for Susan Baird that their values were worthless.

Paula took conservatives to task for supposedly wanting to "starve government into greatness."  Obviously, Paula doesn't understand that government is never "great."  It isn't supposed to be.  The people - the citizens are what make a society great.  Right-sized government enables that greatness, but, more often than not, over-reaching government inhibits that greatness. The People are the ones that create the best of the great things in our society, not government.

Then, to take her point, even further, she started displaying the tax records of private citizens on the screen, including Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer and demonstrating how they needed to be paying more, as if the $29,000 per year that they are already paying in property taxes on their homestead isn't enough.  She clearly made the case that wholesale redistribution of wealth by the government, from the rich to the poor, was firmly in her value system.

But, she saved the best for last.  She then showed Ed Braddy's property tax record and went out of her way to make the point that the amount that he pays in property taxes couldn't be enough to even fund the education of his five children.

What kind of brain meltdown does it take for a politician to show the homestead tax records of a private citizen and his children and then make issue of whether or not his taxes cover the education of those children?  Sure, it is public record, anyway, but there is a difference in it existing as public record and Paula DeLaney put it on TV and turning a man's children into political footballs.

As an additional note, two of the other tax records that Paula used were conservatives that had spoken out against the liberal policies of the commission.  Only their initials were displayed on the big screens and on the television, but the message is that if you disagree with Paula DeLaney and her value system, and you say so publicly, she is capable of retribution.

Paula DeLaney owes Billy Donovan, Urban Meyer, Ed Braddy and two other citizens an apology, and the rest of the commission needs to have a public discussion about whether or not using the property tax records of private individuals as a political weapon, is or is not an acceptable practice for that body.

If you are interested in watching this insanity, you can view it online at this link.

If you are interested in contacting Alachua County Commissioner Paula DeLaney and giving her your opinion on this horrible stunt, then please call her or email her.

352-264-6900

pdelaney@alachuacounty.us

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Alachua County Republican Executive Committee is tonight, Thursday, December 9th.  The meeting will start at 7:00 P.M.

We will handle some quick business and then adjourn for a Christmas Party.  Everybody is invited to the meeting and the Christmas Party.  If you can, please bring one thing to share (pie, eggnog, soda, fruit, cheese or coldcut platters, cookies, etc).

Well, we just finished one election season, but another very important one is coming up.

The elections for Gainesville City Commission are up on March 15th, 2011 with the run-off happening on April 12, 2011.

Folks, it is all about turnout.  We can take these seats, and we have some great candidates to do it with.

Robert Krames, Todd Chase, Don Marsh, Dikassa Dixon and Rob Zeller are all GREAT Republicans that have filed to run for the District 2, District 3 and At-Large 2 seats.

The Alachua County Republican Party is going to be working, very hard, to turn out the vote, and we will be calling our exceptional volunteers to help us mae that happen.