Sad thing is, as I've noted on that article, there's little information about the down-ballot candidates. The local news is at best shaky - the Tampa Bay Times does not list any Pasco campaigns on their recommendations - outside of any headline-worthy scandals, so the suggestions I've put out there for voting for the Mosquito Control Board are quite honestly mere suggestions.
WHY I make a big deal out of the Mosquito Control Board elections is because it's a quirky kind of office to see holding open elections for seats - I don't see other counties holding elections for this - yet perfectly Florida in its focus - mosquitoes are a serious health issue down here - that it deserves mention.
It didn't help that in 2010, when I began blogging more current event politics on this site, that there was a serious amount of campaigning for the seats. I'm talking massive: The open seats each had like three or four candidates running, for some measly little part-time office that I was told met maybe three or four times a year. And by massive I'm talking tonnage of yard signs: a plethora of signage that even Presidential campaigns don't generate (was there a sign discount going on with the local printers or something?). There were twenty yard signs - I don't even think I'm exaggerating - for some guy named "Skeeter" compared to one sign for Rick "No Ethics" Scott.
For something happening in the midterms, in the middle of a Great Recession, to see no other yard signs but for Mosquito Control was a bit insane.
This is a photo from back in 2010 in front of the West Pasco Government Center where they host the Early Voting during the last two weeks before the big Election Day. Take a close look. LOOK AT ALL THE YARD SIGNS. I can tell you more than half of those signs - There's Griffin right up front! - were for the Mosquito Control Board.
The driveway ends at a roundabout where cars can drop off riders and stuff. There's a memorial there, and there is always an insane amount of signs there too:
This photo was taken early in the 2010 Early Voting cycle: I remember a day or three later there were so many yard signs there that someone decided to stack them atop each other to form a barricade. It went three signs high. It tipped over in a strong breeze. It was hilarious.
So anyway, in my reminiscing, today I had a reason to drive back into Pasco County for my dad's 80th birthday. I drove by an Early Voting line at the Land O'Lakes Library (shout out to my peeps) where it went out into the parking lot, so yeah it's busy this year. I realized hey, I haven't been back to the West Pasco Center in ages so I might as well swing by and see how crazy the signage is this year. It wasn't too far out of the way for me to drive.
Well, this is what I saw today:
There's the Roundabout for 2016. And... and... there's almost no signage compared to 2010. That driveway up to here had few yard signs lining the path.
What the hell happened?
I circled it, twice. I didn't see ANY signage for the Pasco Mosquito Control Board. I even asked the volunteer sign wavers hanging out in front of the building - at the safe 75 ft. distance from the doorway - why there wasn't any Mosquito Control Board signs, but nobody knew.
I guess Thomas Wolfe was right: You can't go home again.
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