Channeling Ken Pruitt??

Its not easy staking out a position on crucial community issues ten months before the election. Part of the problem is that my views are still being shaped by the people I'm meeting with and part of it is knowing these words may stick. To make matters worse, the issues page on the campaign website starts with two big ticket topics, taxes and growth. In the material I had sent to the campaign webmaster was the following quote:

"Forces outside of County control have brought growth nearly to a standstill. Now is the time to take advantage of Sarasota’s growing reputation for sustainability to broaden our economic base, reducing our prior dependence on new residences and sprawl to make sure new population growth is smart growth that improves our county."

Imagine my surprise, then, when I picked up this morning's Sarasota Herald Tribune [Mixed Messages on State Economy] and read the following quote summarizing Senate President (and Republican leader) Ken Pruitt:

"Pruitt said slower population growth would allow the state to focus on "quality of life" rather than unmanageable sprawl."

So the question is:  Who is channeling who? Seriously, I'm pleased to be in his company. 

 

Back to Bite Me

I've been writing guest columns and letters to the editor for years, on a wide variety of topics. People might assume it has always been about the environment, so they'll be surprised to find pieces on the future of agriculture in Sarasota, bright ideas to improve Sarasota, and cars as the leading cause of death for children. I even submitted a design for the Florida quarter when the local paper asked for ideas.

Some enterprising soul who opposes my candidacy will no doubt comb through all my public pronouncements and find some passage that, taken out of context, sounds damning or radical or just plain silly. And then my efforts to communicate with the public will come back to bite me. 

So it only seems fair that I can reach back and take advantage of my earlier thoughts and words. Today a Tom Tryon Editorial in the Sarasota Herald Tribune credited me with a "what if" idea. 

He was referring to an idea I've been promoting lately that it may be cheaper to pay people to stop using so much water than to go out and develop new water supplies. (I'll write more on this intriguing concept in a later blog entry.)