Seeking Out Dirt from the Ex-Wife...

This guy must think he's in Washington, D.C., given the style of politics he's trying to play.

Get this... he spies Clayton's ex-wife - of two decades ago - shopping at OfficeMax and tries to extract some dirt out of her about Clayton, assuming the break-up was a nasty one.

Again, just goes to show how little he knows about this community. Clayton, his wife, ex-wife and her new husband, all attend the same church and many family functions together.

The first thing his ex-wife did was call Clayton and tell him to watch out for this guy, as he's clearly up to no good.

We need less of that type of slimy behavior, not more.

This world needs more people like Clayton and his former wife.

Wierd Friday Public Forum

One of the first public candidates’ forums took place Friday night. Clearly, of all the candidates, Clayton Lopez garnered the most energy from those in attendance.

The other guy had some rather strange things to say. So much so, that I need to review the video to grasp just how weird some of his comments were.

Normally, I wouldn't write about him, but his comments were so off-the-mark that I feel compelled to share them.

Out of nowhere, he thought it prudent to say his quest for public office wasn't a racial issue (for anyone unfamiliar with the candidates, he’s white, Clayton Lopez happens to be black).

People are sitting there saying to each other... "Where the hell did that come from?"

If you want to play the "race card," one way to do it is to publicly state - out of the blue, when it's not even an issue - that you're not playing the race card.

Then he went on to infer that he's had some great involvement with the ongoing youth job training program, saying it helps get all those kids off welfare.

"Those" kids? "Welfare." Where exactly is his head at? It's a good program - and, I hate to apologize for the other guy, but to all those kids who'll be offended by this, I'll say it... "I'm sorry that this carpet-bagger from Arizona, New York, NJ, and California doesn't have the sensitivity to know when he's being offensive."

Get this… he actually went on to say the following:

"We need to employ LOCALLY not what we are sometimes greeted by at our restaurants and other business's [sic].”

Are you starting to catch the theme here… racial, welfare, them people, those with foreign accents… it’s downright shameful. Just maybe, in the few years he’s lived here, he failed to notice our rather obvious “One Human Family” motto. It’s kind’a self-explanatory, but maybe someone needs to spell it out for him...

O-N-E H-U-M-A-N F-A-M-I-L-Y.

Since he obviously feels this way, maybe he should go stand alongside Fred Phelps the next time that moron comes to town.

I know he has been trying to polarize the community, saying one thing on one side of the district, and another on the other size, playing one neighborhood against the other. Apparently he hasn’t lived here long enough to have a better understanding of Key West and its people. That song and dance won't play here.

Then he goes on to tout what a great affordable housing humanitarian he’s been. Well yeah, for himself.

He's living in a Land Trust house. What a great way to help the people... move to Key West, get a non-profit to buy your property while you continue living there, then go on to be that organization's Treasurer and ultimately its President. Now that's a real affordable housing humanitarian - isn’t it.

Were all this not enough, he proceeds to proclaim himself a person of great integrity and character. “… Not like what [he] was approached with last week.”

Well I guess that was about me. Last week, I had a sit-down chat with him to explain what was on my mind. I don’t like beating-around-the-bush, so I shared my concerns with him, rather directly.

I had some concerns about the Land Trust and its lack of financial accountability, especially during times when he was its Treasurer and went on to be its President.

Here are a few of my thoughts that I shared with him:

• That he appeared to me, to be a shill or proxy candidate for the Land Trust’s interests.
  

• That his aspirations to run for the state legislature would be ill suited by this campaign wherein his claims of being accountable will be matched against his shepherdship over that non-profit organization’s window of severe financial unaccountability.
  

• If he was looking to gain name recognition to help with a future run for higher office, this probably wouldn’t help.

• He probably didn’t even realize what was happening during the time he was on that board; which is exactly the problem. He was its President, more importantly, he was its Treasurer, the person who’s supposed to be watching the money and how it’s handled.

His slogan is all about making a positive change. Good grief. What kind of change does he envision for us all?

Rather scary, isn’t it.