Here we go again

Here we go again! It looks like the founder of the Hernando County Taxpayer Alliance has ginned up another superficial endorsement from her political action committee. This time it is for Wayne Dukes, county commission candidate, district 3. Are we suppose to be impressed by this hollow endorsement? Well, we aren't, and we should all stand up in unison and say so what, again.

Just to set the record straight, the Hernando County Taxpayer Alliance did not interview all the county commission candidates in district 3, or for district 5 race, for that matter. Any legitimate organization would have interviewed all candidates to weigh the data equally before endorsements were ever made on a candidate or race.

The Hernando County Taxpayers Alliance finally complied with the regulations for operating a political action committee. Well, they sort of complied, by filing a treasurer's report with the supervisor of elections office on March 31, 2008. The contributions reported for this organization are $425.00 for the first quarter of 2008. Linda A. Hayward is listed as the treasurer along with five contributors. There are no expenditures for the bus trips to Tallahassee organized by the Hernando county Taxpayer alliance or any other related expenses listed in this report. There is no record of in-kind contributions prior to January 1, 2008 for a website that has been operation since 2007 for this political action committee.

This superficial endorsement of Mr. Dukes did not include some pertinent facts about his background in Hernando County. He is a retired federal government worker on a pension. Mr. Dukes was a registered democrat when he entered the district 3 race before switching his party affiliation to republican. Even though Mr. Dukes is running in district 3, he resides in district 1 in Hernando Beach. In fact, Mr. Dukes ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner in district 1 as a democrat, finishing last in a field of three in his democrat primary in 2006.