The North-Central Florida Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association and the Suwannee-St. Johns Group Sierra Club have both announced their endorsements for this year’s County Commission races.
The North-Central Florida Chapter of the PBA has endorsed County Commissioner Lee Pinkoson, who is running for re-election to the District 2 seat, and another Democrat, Kevin Thorpe, for the District 4 seat Commissioner Susan Baird will vacate later this year.
The Suwannee-St. Johns Group Sierra Club has endorsed Democrats Harvey Ward Jr., who is running against Pinkoson in the August primary, and Ken Cornell, who, like Thorpe, is running for the District 4 County Commission seat.
While all the Democratic candidates for the county races expressed support for protecting natural resources in their interviews and written responses to the Sierra Club’s questionnaire, Ward and Cornell demonstrated a deeper understanding of and a stronger commitment to the issues that are most important to the environmental community, according to the Sierra Club’s news release.
A top environmental issue is Plum Creek Timber Company’s application regarding how it plans to develop its land in eastern Alachua County, which has been sent to the county government for consideration.
The Sierra Club formally opposes Plum Creek’s application, and Ward and Cornell tok strong, thoughtful positions against it as well. Their opponents, meanwhile, neither took a position nor “even expressed reservations,” according to the news release.
At a recent candidate forum, Pinkoson said the county attorney advised him not to take a position on the matter since Plum Creek’s application is going to come before the County Commission. He also said he doesn’t believe he should take a position on this issue until the commission votes on it.
At the same forum, Thorpe said Plum Creek should be given the right to be properly vetted and coming down on either one side or the other at this point in the process would be a “dereliction of our duty.”