By: Ira Rather
Coral Springers resoundingly voiced their preferences for a new mayor and sent Commissioner Tom Powers packing in favor of Skip Campbell. They also showed their approval…in fact, they screamed their approval…for Joy Carter over Laurette Homan to take over Commission Seat 5.
The contest wasn’t even close—Carter’s 15,338 to Homan’s 6,705.
But in a bizarre twist in the voting, second place Homan beat out third place finisher Andy Holz, who had 5,330 votes, even though Holz held almost identical positions to Carter. (More fiscal responsibility, for example, and an anti-downtown Taj Mahal vigor.)
So how does one interpret this? After three days of thinking about it and scratching my head, I finally realized the numbers were right there in front of me all along:
Carter and Holz’s anti-downtown and more conservative spending positions total a little under 21,000 votes, compared to Homan’s whip-out-the-credit-card total of 6,705. Which means more than three times as many people voted against a huge downtown development project as for it—for this seat, at least.
However, with the Seat 4 Lou Cimaglia versus Howard Melamed contest going to a recount on Monday, what garnered Cimaglia more votes (as of this writing before the recount, anyway), even though he was in favor of the big project too? My interpretation is that he wasn’t that much in favor of it in the first place, and like his other statements, “I think we could have come up with a better slogan for the city”…”Well, those signs could have been handled differently [paraphrasing here]” …I think Lou put some distance between himself and defeated candidates Powers and Homan.
Lou was a respectable, reputable cheerleader for Powers and Homan, but when push came to shove, he didn’t yell the cheers as loudly or as exactly as Powers expected. He didn’t always stick to Powers’ script.
Homan’s weak showing demonstrated not just the weaknesses of her positions in the voters’ minds, but her inherent weakness as a credible candidate. Think about it:
If Carter wasn’t in the race, Holz would have run away with it, due to sharing similar positions. If Holz wasn’t in the race, Carter would have run away with it even further (if that’s possible). And if Homan wasn’t in the race, as the numbers clearly show, it could have been a real horse race between Holz and Carter. (Okay, maybe Carter would have run away with this too because of more experience, name recognition, city committees membership, the Chamber of Commerce, etc., but I doubt it would have been a 3-to-1 result!)
Likely scenario is that if Carter or Holz weren’t in the race, Homan wouldn’t have picked up many votes at all, unless you claim her personality alone would have made a big difference. It didn’t in this contest, and if anyone wants to encourage her to run again, you’re also encouraged to watch her “performances” at the candidates’ forums, and take a good, honest look at some of the things she said, and how she said them.
We’re going to see more of Andy Holz in the next few years, because he has a lot to offer. I encourage Andy to start making his face known at Commission meetings, or if that’s too painful for him (isn’t it for most people?), he should at least get more active in city politics via committee participation, social media, etc.
In the meantime, congratulations Joy! And please don’t be too nervous about your new responsibilities:
Be honest, listen to the residents and those who own businesses here, and do the right thing when push comes to shove. People will love you, and you’ll sleep better at night.
And by the way:
I don’t mind being called names and that some of you hate my guts because of my political views, but wouldn’t you like to frame your own arguments in full article form, and experience all of this wonderful feedback for yourself?
Readers can submit their own opinions to Coral Springs Talk. Just email coralspringstalk@gmail.com
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7 comments
Iram I agree with your view. Joy will be a breath of fresh air and a savory business woman in her own right. If you watch the debates, Holman acted more like a little cheerleader for the current commission. She lacked crediablity to listen to the voices of Coral Springs. In Holmans business people skills are not a priorty since insurance is a business that is cut and dry for the most part. Joy, as a Realtor, must have impecable people skills to be successful (which she is) to facilate transactions on behalf of her clients. Cimagla is a nice decent guy who garnered the votes dispite being aligned with the other two who lost due to his Vetern status and his work on working to bring the Wall to Coral Springs. I do believe that Cimagla will prove to be an asset to the commission and not a puppet for the other two seating commissioners. The man has been around the block many more times than the seating two commissioners and is a veteran who knows how to stand tall and proud. I believe that Melamed should have ran against Daley which would have given a better opponent to campaign against and win.
Ira – I still want to meet You – Just from a Curiosity Factor to put Your Articulation with a Face ;-)
I am grateful for this Win and Beyond Grateful that it is over (for at least a Year ;-). Both of My Contenders are Quality People that I feel, want as much as I do, for Coral Springs to Be Great (even though we differed in the “HOW”. My community involvement was never to run for office. I gave, because, like my opponents I LOVE the city I live in. The major difference between us, is that I got DEEPLY involved in being a part of making Coral Springs terrific, long before they did. I hope that both Laurette and Andy, CONTINUE TO GIVE, in their passion to making Coral Springs even better, because when you bring your heart and soul into the mix – All of us benefit!
Ira was correct. I agree with you Joy, but your leadership qualities rise above most. Your track record proves it. I’m sure the citizens of Coral Springs will be pleased with their new commissioner for the next four years.
It’s a face that can’t be articulated.
What I take away from all this is how few people voted in CS for anyone, so really nobody has a mandate!
Actually, participation was very GOOD for a mid-term election.
With a population of around 125,000 and assuming an average family size of 4, and assuming a 2-parent household, that’s 62,500 eligible voters, let alone REGISTERED voters.
And almost 30,000 people at least voted for the mayoral race, which means a tad less than a VERY respectable 50% participation rate.
Here’s the math, and if you need a calculator, go grab one now. Or you might have a calculator app on your iPhone 2!
*125,000 people divided by 4 equals 31,250 households.
*31,250 households times 2 parents equals 62,500 potential voters.
*29,181 total votes for Campbell AND Powers means a little under 50% of all eligible voters voted, and remember–that doesn’t mean they were registered to vote. This also doesn’t include a few hundred, or God knows how many, who didn’t cast a mayoral ballot. (The Supervisor of Elections seems to have a problem with answering a simple question like how many people TOTAL voted.)
So if I were you, I wouldn’t exactly say “how few people voted,” but then again, you’ll say anything at all, won’t you? The facts be damned!
Of course, I can go further into the math, because our actual total households figure may also represent kids of voting age, offset by households of just one or two people, minus college kids who are away from home, and a bunch of other factors.
But I don’t want to confuse you, since you seem to be having difficulty with the very simple math and accurate generalization I formulated above.
I just used the figures in this article for this race, thinking most would have voted in this race if they were voting. That comes to 27,373 total votes which is about 43% under your premise of the number of households and potential voters (62,500) . That means 57% didn’t vote, and I don’t care what averages are, that means the majority could give a sh@t about what goes on; I’m just saying.
You take everything and turn it into a hate thing, when your figures are a guesstimate at best as well Ira. Guess that’s why you are so ‘popular’! Personally I think there are more in CS of voting age than 62.5, but don’t profess to know.
I would like to see your next ‘guest’ article on what CS should be doing for a city hall and development going forward, as ideas would be great to hear since we are passed the shooting down of the Taj Mahal and in need of a plan going forward.