Outrageous

This is outrageous. $39,335 for a city council seat. How in the world do you spend $39,335 in a city council race? Uber your push cards to the voters?

But don’t misunderstand. Mr. Amaral seems like a decent guy. Rather bright, holds his own at the mic. Done pretty well for himself building houses.

Definitely held in high regard by his peers given his long tenure with the Flagler Builder’s Association. You know, the outfit that is suing the City for hiking impact fees after learning that those fees have only been paying 47 cents on the dollar for what it costs the city to host them?

There is absolutely nothing illegal about handing over or receiving mass sums of cash for a political campaign and we’re not slinging around accusations of a quid-pro-quo.

It’s just life. He hangs with the checksigners and lives in a world where economic prosperity means building stuff and there’s nothing wrong with that.

That’s one side of this election, well-funded candidates feverishly supported by the development community because they understand Westward Expansion. Tons of houses, tons of jobs, the city will prosper.

The other side is the grassroots. Normal people not really good at what it takes to win an election because to win you have to do things that aren’t normal. It’s not normal to spend the afternoon knocking on people’s doors in the hopes of striking up a conversation.

It’s not normal to stand up in front of a crowd of strangers and talk about yourself. It’s not normal to open your heart and soul up to people you don’t know while knowing there are people watching you that want to trip you up or embarrass you.

Then, there’s the money. It’s not only cash, it’s ‘loans to myself’ quietly paid back later when reporting is not so in the open. It’s from “governmental affairs” lines in budgets, not food off a table. Nobody really feels it.

And in the grassroots there is little. There’s 10 bucks here, 20 bucks there from people that are struggling over whether or not they can keep the HBO and premium services on the cable.

This is not a normal time for any city. We’re hundreds of millions in debt and have tens of thousands of houses lined up we know we can’t provide water to or treat. That’s clear and on the record.

So who do you want? A normal person? If you do you have to start scoring this election differently. Appointments to boards and associations are suspect. This is how the chosen build their resumes. Rousing speeches clever turns of phrase are suspect. They actually take classes and hire consultants for this stuff, what normal person would do that?

Finally, money. Look at who is giving. It’s not a quid-pro-quo, it’s a promise that a call or text will be answered, an email will be opened. Their voices will be heard.

We are in desperate times. We need normal people willing to do the homework, to read the source documents and work on behalf of their families, their community — even the wildlife.

Choose wisely.