(Orlando, FL) – Jim Duffy, Republican candidate for Orange County Tax Collector, believes that the incumbent tax collector, Earl Wood, is ineffective and must be replaced.

Duffy, 39, says that Wood has become complacent and virtually non-existent as Tax Collector, an office he has held for 47 years.  Duffy offers the numerous media accounts and anecdotal comments that taxpayers have made regarding Woods’ lack of performance.

“Earl K. Wood has made many admissions in multiple interviews with the Orlando Sentinel that he cannot fulfill his obligation to Orange County taxpayers.”

“Earl Wood admits that he only goes to the office a few days a week.  You cannot effectively run a department with a multi-million dollar budget and ten locations without showing up for work,” stated Duffy.

Duffy also says that Wood is taking advantage of Orange County residents by drawing a salary of more than $150,000 annually while collecting a $90,000 annual pension from the county for the same job.

Duffy also blasted the practice of squeezing contributions from employees in the agency.  During the 2008 election period Wood collected contributions from several Tag Agency Managers and other employees.  Since Orange County’s Tag Agencies are under the control of the Tax Collector this represents a clear conflict of interest and may violate state elections and ethics laws, especially if those contributions were collected in government buildings.

“Since Wood held no fundraisers and did not solicit contributions in traditional ways like direct mail, one would have to conclude that the contributions were collected during work hours in taxpayer funded buildings,” Duffy commented.

Duffy says that “elected officials should never accept contributions from people employed by the agency they are elected to lead, contending that it could give the appearance of undue influence, and vows never to accept such contributions as Tax Collector.

Duffy says Orange County voters and the media need to pay closer attention to constitutional officers like Tax Collector, citing that Wood, and other similar elected officials are continually re-elected simply because they happen to be in office and fly under radar for the local media.

“The Tax Collector’s race does not involve social issues, policy setting, or legislative action.  It doesn’t include the issues that normally get voters riled up.  Yet, we entrust the Tax Collector with a large amount of financial responsibility.  Voters need to make an informed decision about who they elect to hold the position.”  Duffy concluded.

Duffy is the Republican candidate for Orange County Tax Collector and previously won countywide office as a member of the county’s soil and water conservation board.

(Tallahassee, Florida) – The Florida Conservative News has awarded it’s first “Biased Blogging Award” to Central Florida attorney and gadfly, Sarah Rumpf. Rumpf, as you may recall, ran Democrat State Attorney Lawson Lamar’s campaign and was the subject of numerous news reports of missteps and strategic mistakes, so many in fact, that the supportive Orlando Sentinel even editorialized about what a disastrous campaign the Lamar campaign had become.

According to the conservative news operation, a lot of bloggers out there represent themselves as unbiased, just reporting “the facts,” and very seldom do they disclose their true motivations.

Florida Conservative News investigated and discovered that Rumpf had lied (they called it “fibbing”) about being paid by the Hasner campaign to promote his lackluster effort.

Adam Hasner, one of five candidates for the GOP nomination for the US Senate, has been fluctuating wildly between 2 and 4% of the GOP vote.

Rumpf is a self-proclaimed blogger and supports Adam Hasner, as she stated on April 7, 2011 on Twitter and her personal blog.

Rumpf uses her forum to repeatedly make negative and untrue comments about other US Senate candidates, with a majority of her vitriol directed toward US Army Col. Mike McCalister and Crist appointee to the US Senate, Crist former Chief of Staff, George LeMieux. As the FCN states in their article, “Everyone has a right to comment about politics online, and we don’t fault Ms. Rumpf for sharing her opinions.” FCN points out that on August 25th, Rumpf reflecting on prior untrue attack posts stating that Col. Mike McCalister was tied to conservative anti-tax leader Doug Guetzloe and responding to Guetzloe and others that she was on the Hasner payroll, Rumpf stated: “I’m not on Hasner payroll.”

This was posted via Twitter and on her blog – shown here:

The Florida Conservative News states, “Boy, Ms. Rumpf must have a very short memory because her company, Caffeinated Campaigns, was paid $549 on August 24, 2011 — the day before her comments above — by the Adam Hasner campaign for “Fundraising Consulting.” Ms. Rumpf is the owner of Caffeinated Campaigns.

Hasner’s finance report to the Federal Elections Commission shows the payment to Rumpf:

The Florida Conservative News states: To sum up, Ms. Rumpf expressly fibbed about her relationship with the Hasner campaign. She stated on August 25th that she was not on the Hasner payroll, but had been paid $549 on August 24th, the day before. For that, she is one of our Biased Blog Award Winners.

The Florida Tea Party congratulates Herman Cain on his extraordinary victory in the Presidency 5 Florida Straw Poll.  Mr. Cain won by an unprecedented margin, finished far ahead of the number two and three candidates, combined and brought remarkable energy and competition to the Florida Straw Poll.   It is important to note that in the previous “Presidency” Florida straw polls the winner of the straw poll has gone on to win the Florida primary, and become the GOP nominee.

In an example of grace, and professionalism, Mr. Cain waited for the results, and then walked the concourse of the Orange County Convention Center, thanking attendees for their support, before departing.  Supporters and well-wishers lined the hallways to congratulate the Georgia businessman for his historic victory.

Speaking via video, from his campaign bus, Mr. Cain responded to his victory, saying, “This is a big thank you to our supporters, and our staff. If not for the support, garnered all over Florida and the United States, this wouldn’t have been possible. Thank you. Without your support, and the hard work of our dedicated staff, we couldn’t have done this. The Herman Cain train is picking up steam.”

Mr. Cain, fresh from his victory will headline the Guetzloe Report on the Phoenix Network -

http://www.phoenixnetwork.us/

– at 11:30 A.M. Monday September 25, 2011.

The Florida Tea Party celebrates with Herman Cain, winner of the Florida Straw Poll and extends our good wishes for the campaign trail, to all candidates, their families, and staff.

Direct inquiries to:
Rev. Dr. John A. Long
Florida TEA Party
(863) 557-5988
FloridaTeaParty1@gmail.com
http://www.FloridaTeaParty.US

“The Official Florida Tea Party”

Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by the Florida Tea Party (TEA)

www.FloridaTeaParty.US

America is at a crucial point.The President seems to think a pretty speech will make it all better.The country is hurting.The President seems to think class warfare, unequal taxation, attack the evil oil companies, obscene spending and protecting chronically, dependent unions will fix it.

Anywhere and everywhere, people are jobless, losing their savings, and their homes, suffering a myriad of hardships due to government mismanagement. The crisis facing America is not the fault of the vast majority of Americans. It is the fault of a confrontational, self centered, self indulgent and corrupt government, that puts politics ahead of decency, more often than junkies put their next fix ahead of a good meal.

Americans do not need another government program. America doesn’t the dozens f new government programs eluded to, tonight. We need fewer programs, less restriction and regulation, fewer retardants to prosperity and more access to opportunity, which the President’s proposals do not and can not address. Like any addict, the Federal Government must go cold turkey, on their spending habit and suffer through their own version of withdrawal.

We cannot afford a president writing checks the treasury cannot cover. We can no longer borrow our way past whatever silly spending catches the President’s eye, today. He has to be reigned in, forced through the constitutional process, to help congress and the senate balance our books, and begin the process of retiring debt, instead of creating more.

President Obama demanded 22 times, the congress “pass the bill, right now.” At least twenty-two times President Obama reminded us of how often he demands congressmen and women pass things without understanding what is in them. America can’t afford this type of electioneering. The Florida Tea Party calls upon President Obama to turn from the spending orgies of his first two and a half years in office, get the government out of our lives and return economic decisions to Americans so we can return America to a prosperous, growing, and thriving country once again.

Dr. John Long is the spokesman for the Florida Tea Party (TEA) – the Official Tea Party of Florida – www.FloridaTeaParty.US

(END)

TEA Party Headquarters
545 Delaney Avenue, Building Two
Orlando, FL 32801
info@FloridaTEAParty.US
www.FloridaTEAParty.US

Political Advertisement Paid for approved by the TEA Party
“Florida’s Official TEA Party”
Fred O’Neal, Chairman Emeritus

To the editor:

As you all have heard by now, Gov. Rick Scott approved the SunRail project.

As a taxpayer, I have many questions on how Osceola County is going to pay for this train that will never pay for itself. I would have preferred a rail system that would take me as far north as Tallahassee and as far south as Miami. I would think that type of rail system would have been used a lot more than the proposed SunRail.

Sun Rail is going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, actually, the latest count is in the billions. The state of Florida has made perfectly clear that it will have a seven-year obligation. After the seven years, the counties involved will have to support this rail system.

My question is, why, as the chairman of the County Commission, hasn’t Brandon Arrington addressed the sole-source funding item? Mr. Arrington’s lack of leadership shows us all his lack of ability to manage our tax funds.

Mr. Arrington said to local news media that “the long term operational costs for SunRail will most likely be from an increase of taxes, such as a gas tax, a county charter surcharge and maybe even a rental car surcharge. Right now, with gasoline costing us in excess of $3.50 per gallon and climbing, we don’t need more taxes added to the price per gallon. And let’s make sure that we tax our tourists even more so that they can think twice before coming here on vacation.

With food costs skyrocketing, unemployment still at double digits, food stamp use soaring, utility bills on a constant increase, 80 percent of our students on free lunches and foreclosures at a record high, Mr. Arrington is willing to burden Osceola County with more taxes. What kind of world is he living in? It certainly isn’t ours. All he knows is to tax and spend. It seems that his only knowledge of economics is coming straight out of the Whitehouse.

As a sitting commissioner and a chairman, where is the leadership he should be bringing to this county? Where are the job creations which he should be focusing on? Where is there any kind of relief for our citizens who struggle just to keep food on their table? Instead of assisting and actually helping those of us who need relief, he would raise our taxes for more wasteful spending. What’s next, more green projects to bring more cost to us?

Mr. Arrington has had more than two years on the County Commission and has proven to our residents that he’s simply a tax-and-spend commissioner.

Land deal after land deal, which should have never even been considered, passed under his alleged leadership as chairman. Yet, with economic times like these, he actually complains that the county needs money.

Why are we even buying useless land projects that are costing the taxpayer millions of dollars? Why does Mr. Arrington continue to allow, and even support, spending our tax dollars so foolishly?

He might be able to pull the wool over some of the residents’ eyes with his town hall meetings, but rest assured, the truth will prevail.

Tony Ferentinos

Osceola County Commission

Candidate District 3, Kissimmee