WHEN YOUR PART NOMINATES A SCHMUCK
Lately
I’ve been pondering the scenario, what-if Donald Trump had run for president as
a Democrat. It’s not as crazy as it
might seem. If someone hopped in their time
machine and went back to 2000 and discussed Trump becoming president with
passersby, they might not be certain which party he would choose. In the past he tended to be pro-choice, and
his protectionism might appeal to labor unions.
Voters could even frame his anti-immigrant stance as defending American
workers. Traditionally protectionism has
been associated with Democrats and free trade with Republicans, Trump has
effectively flipped that issue. He even
once said the economy tended to do better under Democratic presidents. The idea that Trump might drift into the
Democratic side of the aisle was entirely plausible prior to 9-11.
In
this scenario the 2016 presidential election would have featured the Democrat
Trump against a Republican, probably Ted Cruz who finished second in actual
delegates that year. How would Democrats
have responded? Would Democrats have
fallen into line behind their nominee?
When he started talking about banning Muslim travel would Democrats have
justified that racist policy to prevent Cruz from winning the election. Would we have overlooked Trump referring to
African Americans as low IQ and nations with black majorities as “shithole
countries?” I’m sure some would have
justified a vote for Trump as the lesser evil.
Still, I suspect, or at least I hope, that his support within the
Democratic party would have fallen precipitously.
This
doesn’t just apply to Democrats, Republicans can just as easily find themselves
in this situation. In some cases, voting
for a third party or even a write-in candidate can provide an opportunity to
safeguard your principles. That’s
exactly what we saw happen in the 2016 presidential election. In 2008 only 1.4% of the vote went to someone
other than the two major party candidates, in 2012 it was 1.7%. However, in 2016 this number more than
tripled going up to 5.7%. It appears
there was significant dissatisfaction with the nominees for both parties and
many looked for an alternative candidate, even if they had no chance of
winning.
No Gaetz
I’m
highlighting voter dissatisfaction from the 2016 presidential race because here
in northwest Florida we have a similar situation in our congressional race this
year. In Matt Gaetz’s six years in Congress
representing Florida’s 1st Congressional
District he’s repeatedly displayed juvenile and self-aggrandizing behavior,
infuriating Democrats and rubbing many Republicans the wrong way. Then the press revealed he regularly attended
drug fueled parties with young, possibly underaged, prostitutes. He just won his re-election primary, but saw
his level of support drop 12 percent to about two-thirds support among
Republicans. Compare that to Neal Dunn
in Florida’s 2nd district who has been unopposed in his last three
primary elections. These two districts
have similar demographics, clearly Gaetz has far more Republican opposition
than Dunn. Yet these same Republicans
continue to vote for him in the general election out of party loyalty, or at
least as the lesser evil. (Click here for a previous article on Gaetz)
The Rebekah Jones Saga
On
the Democratic side of the equation, they’ve nominated solid candidates over
the last several election cycles, however the district’s strong Republican
majority was too much to overcome.
Unfortunately, this year the Democrats have matched the Republicans in
nominating someone wholly unsuited for the position. Rebekah Jones came to national prominence in
2020 when she claimed Florida governor Ron DeSantis fired her from her job
maintaining Florida’s COVID-19 online dashboard because she refused to falsify
the data. At first it seemed she might
be a strong candidate who could take the fight to Matt Gaetz. The problem is, once you start looking at her
past and fact checking her statements, it quickly becomes apparent she’s
someone who has no business in congress.
Looking
at Rebekah Jones’ history, several things become apparent. She’s very smart, she has a history of
impulsive and erratic behavior, and she’s driven by revenge. She received her B.A. from Syracuse University
in 2012 where she studied geography and journalism. Two years later she earned
her master’s degree from Louisiana State, again studying geography and mass
communication. Then in 2016 she began a Ph.D program at Florida State. It appears she was an above average student
in each of these programs. Her education is impressive and easily qualifies her
for congress, but this is where the story turns south.
After
graduating from LSU, she was hired as a geospatial specialist on the LSU
campus, but was fired from that position in 2016. It’s not clear what the circumstances of the
firing were, but apparently, they banned her from campus. She immediately
violated that ban and returned to her former employer. The resulting call to the police led to her being
charged with trespassing, resisting an officer, and two counts of assaulting a
police officer. Being her first offense,
the judge offered her a pre-trial intervention program which she successfully
completed leading to the charges being dismissed.
Jones at FSU
With
that incident behind her she moved to Tallahassee to begin her Ph.D program and
a job teaching undergraduate geography classes. Once again it didn’t take long
for Jones to run into trouble. By her
second semester at FSU she began having an affair with one of her students.
This serious violation of professional standards, in addition to marital
infidelity, led to Jones’ dismissal.
Jones decided to write a manifesto describing their dysfunctional
relationship in great detail, including their text messages and some intimate
photos. She then posted this document
online and sent links to her former student’s employer and multiple family
members. This resulted in a charge of
sexual cyberharassment (revenge porn) and two counts of cyberstalking.
Jones at the Florida Department
This
brings us to the most infamous of Rebekah Jones’ run-ins with the law. After
leaving FSU she landed a job with the state of Florida as a GIS Analyst in
2018. This position eventually led her
to being involved in the creation of Florida’s online COVID-19 dashboard in the
spring of 2020. Within months of
beginning that project Jones was fired in May of 2020 for insubordination. Jones claimed that Gov. DeSantis was ordering
the Health Dept. to falsify data to justify lifting COVID restrictions and had
her fired for exposing that. This seemed
to have an air of plausibility to it and lifted Jones into the national
spotlight as a whistleblower. It was true that DeSantis was minimizing the
importance of the COVID statistics and limited the publics access to the
data. However, there’s simply no
evidence that anyone attempted to falsify the data.
The
truth is, Jones secretly took control of the dashboard by removing the admin
privileges of her co-workers. She then
unilaterally changed the COVID dashboard without her supervisors’ approval, or
even notifying them of what she was doing.
Her supervisors eventually had to go to the dashboard’s software vender
to force the restoration of admin rights to other Department of Health
employees. While Jones was doing this,
she was also posting information online and identifying herself as a Dept. of
Health employee despite repeated warnings not to make public statements without
department approval. Jones was a
mid-level manager with no medical expertise.
She was trying to single handedly set department policy and making
public statements she was unqualified and unauthorized to make. The Inspector General who investigated Jones’
claims couldn’t find any evidence to support her allegations. Internal communication from her supervisors
concerning her dismissal is publicly available and it appears her termination
was fully justified.
Several
months after Jones was fired, she illegally accessed the department email
system and sent out a system wide email encouraging more whistleblowers to come
forward. This act led to new charges being filed against her for illegally
accessing a government computer system.
She’s denied the charge, but investigators traced the IP address back to
her address and her seized computer equipment shows she accessed the system. These new charges caused prosecutors to
withdraw the plea agreement on her previous cyberstalking charges, which remains
an open case. Since she graduated from
LSU she’s had three jobs. She’s been
fired from all three within two years of being hired and criminal charges have
resulted from all three. That’s not
normal.
Jones on the Campaign Trail
That’s
it for criminal charges, but there’s still more drama with Rebekah. When she decided to run for congress, she
announced she was going to run as an independent. At the same time, she changed her
registration from Democrat to no party affiliated (NPA). However, in Florida a candidate can’t change
their party affiliation within a year of the qualification date for the
election. By the time she decided to run
she was already within that one-year period.
That meant Jones couldn’t run as an independent, so she changed her
registration back to Democrat and filed to run in that party. But when she changed her registration to NPA,
that also made her ineligible to run as a Democrat. Basically, she messed up by not researching
the election rules before deciding to run for office.
When
Jones’ primary challenger tried to have her removed from the ballot for being
ineligible, Rebekah claimed she’d been hacked and had never changed her
registration. This despite the fact she
had publicly announced she was going to run as an independent. After an initial ruling against her, Jones
won her appeal allowing her to remain on the ballot. Not because they bought her “I’ve been
hacked” story, but because the ballots were already printed, and the judge
didn’t want to cause voter confusion. She’s tried to claim she didn’t send the
“revenge porn,” that she didn’t send the illegal email after being fired from
the Dept. of Health, and that someone else change her registration. Boy, she sure gets hacked a lot, or maybe she
just refuses to take responsibility for her actions.
Regardless
of all this, she is now the Democratic nominee for congress in Florida’s first
district. Now that she’s won the
primary, the normal thing to do is to try and mend fences with her primary
opponent’s supporters and build a wide anti-Gaetz coalition. So, of course she did the opposite of that.
The day after the primary she sent an email to the local Democratic
establishment demanding they kick several supporters of her primary opponent out
of the party. Jones also began attacking
fellow Democrats on social media. This
is bizarre behavior that perfectly demonstrates her desire for revenge
supersedes her desire to accomplish the task at hand, winning the election.
Just Say No
Much
like in the 2016 presidential election, many Northwest Florida voters of both
parties find themselves without a candidate they can support in this
election. Unfortunately, there are no
third party or even write-in options.
Many will hold their nose and vote for their party despite misgivings
about the candidate. However, there is
another option, just leave that race blank.
It’s time for Republicans to say enough is enough with Matt Gaetz and
for Democrats to acknowledge we can’t criticize Republicans for voting for
criminals, then turn around and do the same thing. It’s a near certainty that Matt Gaetz will
win this election, but a mass voter boycott might send a message to both
parties that we’re tired of self-absorbed narcissists and if you want our vote,
you need to do better.
Sources
Documents:
Jones’ Pre-trial Intervention & Docket
Report from 2016 arrest in Louisiana.
Jones’ 342-page manifesto about her affair with
her student. (no photos)
Probable Cause Affidavit concerning Jones’
Cyberstalking arrest.
Dept of Health timeline and emails concerning
Jones’ firing.
2020 Arrest Complaint for Jones illegally
accessing a government computer system
Jones’ voter registration showing her changing
to NPA and back to Democrat in 2021
Comments
Post a Comment