The whacky world of Wellington politics got even wackier this month as we learned that once again, billionaire and part-time resident Jeremy Jacobs’ corporate entities made another run at controlling the outcome of Wellington’s elections.
Delaware North and its subsidiaries contributed $412,500 to the Florida Democratic Party from Jan. 7 through March 4, 2014. I wondered out loud in a recent letter to the editor why the Florida Democratic Party was so involved with our “non-partisan” municipal election, and that at some point there would be an answer. When the party posted its financial report online on April 10 for the first quarter of 2014, the answer became clear.
The Democrats apparently used this money to give direct contributions to losing candidates Matt Kurit in the amount of $27,500 and Sharon Lascola in the amount of $30,000. In addition, the Markham Group LLC, an Arkansas limited liability company whose authorization to do business in Florida was revoked for failing to pay the annual fee, the manager of which is listed as Todd Wilder, received the sum of $100,000, and MG Strategies LLC, a Florida limited liability company (Markham Group, MG Strategies, get it?) whose manager is listed as Steven T. Wilder of Tallahassee, received the sum of $152,500. These were the same Tallahassee consulting firms that ran the 2012 election campaign for Wellington Mayor Bob Margolis, Councilman Matt Willhite and Councilman John Greene. That’s $310,000 that can be directly connected to our local municipal election last month. Fortunately for Wellington residents, considering all that money and high-priced talent, their candidates failed to crack 40 percent of the vote. Congratulations Wellington, you defeated the “bosses” who are trying to run Wellington… this time.
Also of note last week, the three amigos (Margolis, Willhite and Greene) bypassed Councilwoman Anne Gerwig, the most senior member of the council who was next in line to become the ceremonial vice mayor, and instead elected the least senior member of council, John Greene, to that role. It wasn’t just a woman thing though, it was a spite thing. They would rather break protocol to elect one of their “amigos” than select the person who was entitled to the position.
So the next time you hear Margolis, Willhite or Greene talk about getting along, look to their actions and not their words, because what they did was deliberately slight the most senior councilwoman, who received more than 63 percent of the people’s votes in her recent re-election. Ask them why they would do something so blatantly offensive if it’s their goal to bring peace to this community. Clearly, it’s not.
Alexander L. Domb, Wellington
Very good letter.