Public polling in the Florida governor’s race shows a razor-thin advantage for Democrat Andrew Gillum heading into the final weekend. But the race has tightened dramatically in the closing week after devastating new disclosures about a criminal corruption probe, ethics charges, and a crime wave of murders, robberies and shootings in Tallahassee that further undermined Gillum’s attempts to portray himself as an effective mayor, and have undercut his credibility as he’s been forced to twist or distort facts to keep the scandals contained.
Voters, though, are starting to figure it out. Republican Ron DeSantis has closed the gap from as many as 12 points down a week ago to bring the race within the margin of error on most public polls. The question now is whether the Republican wave that swamped the polls in 2016 will show up in force again. Election analysts report that Republicans “still have legions of reliable voters” who have yet to cast a ballot. If they show up, DeSantis could cruise to an easy win.
But that’s a big “if,” and the slim polling lead for Gillum continues to confound poll watchers, especially given the news coverage of that has consistently contradicted Gillum on the campaign trail. If he can keep voters from learning the facts of these three major controversies through Tuesday, November 6th, Andrew Gillum will likely become Florida’s next governor:
Corruption
Gillum has been under a cloud of suspicion related to an FBI public corruption investigation over the entire duration of his gubernatorial campaign. While he’s not been formally charged or officially accused of wrongdoing, text messages, emails, photographs and other evidence paint a compelling picture that Gillum was targeted by undercover FBI agents and likely accepted bribes in the form of premium event tickets, luxury hotels, and at least $4,000 in campaign contributions – all paid by a mystery man who used the alias “Mike Miller.” The Tallahassee Democrat and other media outlets have determined through court filings and subpoenas that “Mike Miller” is an alias for an undercover FBI special agent.
Many election observers believe that Gillum won the Democratic nomination precisely because his opponents believed he was so badly damaged by these FBI revelations that they never took him seriously as credible threat to win. But the lack of news about the case, and the lack of negative attention paid to Gillum over the previous year resulted in many voters not realizing just how badly Gillum was mired in controversy.
Now, Gillum is suffering from precisely the opposite effect. Text messages and emails came to light over the past two weeks that dramatically contradict Gillum’s prior explanations about how the FBI’s “gifts” made it into his possession.
As voters learn more about the contradictions between Gillum’s version of events and the hard evidence that is now public, the polls have started to shift, albeit slowly.
Crime Capital
Tallahassee is a relatively small city. It’s hard to believe with so many other large metro areas in the state that Tallahassee owns the title as the crime capital of Florida. Andrew Gillum has faced significant criticism over this fact, including from his own mayoral chief of staff. But he’s tried to push back by pointing out that crime has gone down on his watch in the past year. That much is true, but any decline in the crime from a record-high spike the year before is nothing to brag about.
Crime remains bad in Tallahassee, as evidenced by a 52% spike in the murder rate last year, and overwhelming anecdotal evidence from several very recent, violent events: multiple armed bank robberies – one in broad daylight, the other with a woman being robbed and shot at an ATM, a drive by shooting in the quiet suburban neighborhood of Killearn last month, and this weekend’s mass shooting in which a gunman murdered two people at a yoga studio, shot five others, and then took his own life.
Obviously, Andrew Gillum didn’t cause these crimes to occur, but he is the chief executive of the Florida city with the worst crime rate in the state. And voters are right to question what he’s done (or hasn’t done) to address the problem. Were the police provided adequate funding and support? Is the city’s economy contributing to the crime rate? There are a variety of ways a mayor can have a direct impact on crime.
Which brings us to the final controversy that has voters concerned about Gillum’s ability to lead the 3rd largest state in the nation.
Controversial Anti-Police Statements
Against the backdrop of Tallahassee’s violent crime wave, Andrew Gillum has openly undermined his own city’s police force, and all police throughout the state in two crucial ways. First, he signed a pledge to support the agenda of the radical anti-police group “Dream Defenders.” The pledge Gillum signed contains anti-police language, including this nugget:
“Police were never meant to serve me and you … Police and prisons since their founding have always been about safety for the haves while wreaking havoc for the have-nots.”
When Gillum’s opponent, Ron DeSantis, hammered him repeatedly during the CNN debate, Gillum lied to the audience and denied that he’d ever signed the pledge.
If that isn’t enough to convince voters that Gillum is anti-police and willing to lie about it, he then took the the airwaves on a liberal podcast and made even more controversial comments, claiming police officers are “going to far” if they pull out a gun, taser, or baton.
That is why police officers and law enforcement leaders around the state have turned against Gillum’s campaign in the final weeks:
The question for Andrew Gillum is whether or not he can keep the lid on this controversies before they boil over in voters minds. If so, he’ll be Florida’s next governor.
Wow! The guys a CROOK and he may win! God help us!
We have got to Go Red all the way.
You believe that he is a crook based on the ads you see on TV, sponsored by his opponent. There are three sides of the story yours, mine and the truth.
One only needs to look at Gillum’s stated platform to confirm how radical, dangerous and criminal he is.
I believe you may only be looking at the color of his skin when you make those horrible accusations.
Read the facts
As usual statements
people who play the race card only separate race. It’s 2018, who cares about color of skin?!
Well how about you making the effort to actually KNOW the truth, Anonymous. I would bet money that that won’t happen. It might be too revealing of your black candidate. “Black” is probably the only thing you care to know. If the shoe fits, wear it. Otherwise, get off of your behind and research it yourself.
And the FBI
Google, fact check and Wikipedia. God have mercy on FL if he wins.p
Show me any politician that is not a thief ?? All of them are thieves !!!
Read the law enforcement side.Is he a keeper of the law? That is where the rubber meets the road. Smooth talk will not keep the state afloat.
How about the undercover FBI Agents side? I would think what the investigation shows would be important.
he is a communist like Soros and Sanders who are helping him.enough for me not to vote for him.
Truth is he is under investigation by the FBI. He took bribes from an undercover FBI agent. He publicly lied about all of this. These are all facts!
Trump is a traitor
Why?
What does that have to do with Guillim accepting bribes?
Hoffman,go back under your rock and take the crooked Democract asswipe with you.
What does trump have to do with this article? If Gillum makes it to the governor seat…Florida will become another Brazil …
He hasn’t been charged with anything. And, basically as President Trump so often says, he’s innocent until proven otherwise. Politics is dirty business. Dont fall for the trap of believing innuendos and conspiracy theories.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Rick Scott’s company was investigated for health care fraud which was found to be true. Still became governor, if you can still breath you will live. Go Blue.
Yes Vote Blue
How do u know he’s a crook? R u 1? Crooks know crooks. Stop being fearful about this man. He has the right 2 run and b a legitimate contender 4 the citizens of Florida!
His corruption is an issue, however his Socialist agenda is what scares me!!! How can he possibly have a chance of winning? It makes me nauseous to see where politics has gone these days.
Trump is a pimp
Shut up idiot!
Oh and Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, are such Pillars of the community,
If he’s a Pimp, he’s your pimp. Now get back to work.
And ur an idiot nigger lover
There it is.
He has no chance. Absolutely none.
I agree. Highrmer taxes
Health care for all….who’s going to pay for it and a State tax. Who the hell wants that. Don’t just vote for him because he’s black.
A Florida teacher was in front of her classroom with a bunch of kids telling them that Florida now has a black man running for governor of florida. Isn’t this wonderful. Florida has never had a black man running. Her message to the kids was not the importance of doing a good job for the people of Florida, just that his skin color was what was importance.
Kudos to the teacher. Letting the students know that American has come a long way. Not so long ago a black man with such aspirations would have been made to swing from a tree
The color of a persons skin has ZERO to do with whether or.not they are qualified for the job! The people that make it an issue are the ones who are perpetuating racism and racial divide!
Where is your proof? There is no basis for your allegations. Without supporting documentation there is no reason to believe anything you say. For that reason I reject it.
This person wants to bring Florida to be a third world nation. Hopefully, the patriots in Tallahassee won’t allow for this nonsense!
The Florida Legislature is very conservative. Gillum won’t get any of his policies through. It will be four years of broken promises. He will be a one term governor.
We need a neutral party for Governor. A non racist, public loving person that respects the need for safety from it’s Police forces,and by civil, self protecting armed citizens. We don’t need Andrew Gillum to deny police protection, nor our right to bear arms. We need Republican control of our state. VOTE RED TSUNAMI.
Ask any Canadian how well socialized medicine works for them. The people who paid into Medicare for years are the ones that will suffer with deteriorating services. What do you think those companies whose tax rate goes up are going to do? They will leave the state and take their good paying jobs with them leaving us with the sevice based economy we have been trying to improve upon.
His anti-police statements are enough to question his judgement and his ability to equality protect all citizens of Florida. By not having law enforcement on his side, he can’t possibly be gov’nor!
I’m tired of smooth talkers like Andrew Gillum who make promises to improve your life and do absolutely nothing once they get in office.
It is hard to think this is so close. Florida will have to have a state tax to support all Gillum’s free stuff. Yes, 40 million to support teachers salaries Don’t they know that it will be no raises after the taxes. Sad that so many cannot see what happens in SOCIALISM COUNTRIES !!!!!!!!!
It is quite amazing whom a certain party pardons from life long con jobs, verbal abuse, racism, devaluing everyone who is not able to be manipulated, history of assaulting women and pathological lying thus requiring a lie-o-meter. Pointing fingers is not an solution to ignoring gross misconduct but it surely is a distraction from accountability.
Make sure to require accountability from every politician as well as get the facts before spreading gossip to deflect. #ClusterB #Scapegoating. #gasligjting #flyingMonkeys #verbalAbuse #projection #education #commonGood
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