NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- It's a risky proposition for a media outlet to hand out endorsements in a primary as we have done with today's primary under way. We certainly don't want to alienate anyone and it's not like we have all the answers. Our endorsements are merely a guide, based on what we do know in given races. In some cases, like the county council races, we're not endorsing any of the candidates.
Ultimately, it's up to you, the voting public to decide who wins elective office after the votes are counted. Unless you've already voted through an absentee ballot or early voting, please go out today and vote.
Vote for who you want -- not who we or anyone else wants. We've made endorsements in five races.
They are as follows: Clerk of the Circuit Court: Steve deLaroche; County Judge, group 8: Bryan Feigenbaum, incumbent; County Judge, group 4: Tie -- Dustin Havens or Christopher Kelly; State Attorney: RJ Larizza, incumbent; Supervisor of Elections: Beaulah Blanks.
In the case of the group 8 judge race, because there are only two candidates, whoever wins that race wins the seat, period. We feel strongly about Feigenbaum, based on his record of public service as a former prosecutor and as the incumbent judge sitting on the bench in New Smyrna Beach.
The state attorney's office race is partisan, but because both candidates are Republican, all registered voters can vote in today's primary and the winner is final as well.
We have great respect for Stasia Warren, a retired county judge, but we see no reason why Larizza shouldn't be given a second term in leading that office, one of the most critical in prosecuting offenders. Convictions under his tenure are higher than the state average. Continuity is an important factor here.
In the other county judgeship, group 4, where there are five candidates, we truly believe prosecutors Dustin Havens and Christopher Kelly are the best choices. Unless one candidate in this race gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in the Nov. 6 general elections. We believe Havens and Kelly will be in that runoff unless one of them wins it outright today.
For clerk of the circuit court, another partisan race featuring two Republicans, we favor DeLaroche over incumbent Diane Matousek for two reasons: She's entrenched with a sense of entitlement and the second is low morale.
DeLaroche has a lot of energy and more important, the potential to move that office forward with the technological demands of the 21st century. Matousek is not easily accessible to the public and media. We could never even get a direct response from her about participating in her debates. We had to go through one of her deputies and they said she would participate. She wasa no-show.
We understand our co-endorsement of Beaulah Blanks or Andy Kelly for supervisor of elections will raise eyebrows because incumbent Ann McFall is so popular and well known and Blanks is a newcomer. But as a conservative Internet newspaper, we were stunned that she would take such a public stance against Gov. Rick Scott, a member of her own party, in the voter purge issue. A lot of local Republican leaders saw this as showing up the governor, especially since she went on the Jon Stewart Show on Comedy Central.
McFall did not participate in our July 21 marathon debates at the Brannon Center in New Smyrna Beach. She told us ahead of time she would not be participating because she had a lot of work to do. Keep in mind, it was on a Saturday. Yet, three days later when the Daytona Beach News-Journal held a debate for two county council races, she was in attendance and her campaign signs were posted outside. That was on a Tuesday.
We like Blanks, a lawyer, because of her volunteer legal service in past elections.
There's a strong possibility McFall, herself a former county council member, could win the primary outright. If she does, then good for her. There's something to be said for strong name recognition in local politics, especially in non-partisan races.