Needelman ‘facts’ differ from reality
August 9, 2008 by Matthew Nye
Smear campaign backfires
The clerk’s race is probably one of the most interesting races this year because we have Republican Mitch Needelman, who has a strong legislative background, trying to take out Republican incumbent Scott Ellis.
In addition to turning around the Clerk’s office when he took over, Ellis has been an outspoken advocate for the taxpayers of Brevard County during his eight year tenure as Clerk of the Courts.
Many have questioned why Mr. Needelman would challenge Ellis for this position when Ellis is so highly regarded by most Republicans. In fact, to some I have spoken with, Scott is the epitome of a conservative “watchdog” public official. “The only reason I would want to see Scott out of the Clerk’s office is to see him run for President,” said one caller on Bill Mick’s show a couple of weeks ago.
In order to help voters sort through the candidates and where they stand, local talk show host Bill Mick has been interviewing candidates according to a predetermined schedule. Needelman appeared on Bill Mick Live Thursday morning and answered the “why are you running” question along with many others. You can listen to the full segment here, but don’t click just yet.
During the course of the interview, the name of former County Manager Tom Jenkins came up in regards to the Sarno Landfill purchase. Needelman accused Ellis of aquiescing to the deal by signing the check for the deal as Clerk of the Court. Problem is, Ellis wasn’t the Clerk at that time – Sandy Crawford was.
I spent last night and this morning perusing the Florida Today’s forum for the Clerk’s Race, and I find it has been filled with other misrepresentations and falsehoods by Needelman supporters, so I took the time this morning to edit together the clips from Mitch’s interview on Thursday and Scott’s interview on Friday regarding the Sarno Landfill deal. At best, it demonstrates Mr. Needelman has no idea what he is talking about. At worst it shows he is a premeditated liar. Here is a copy of the check Mr. Needelman referred to:
Clips from Bill Mick Live here: [display_podcast]
“Really cool”, indeed.
Prior to witnessing Mr. Needelman’s assault on Ellis, I thought he was both a good man and a good legislator. I am a big fan of his attempt to completely eliminate property taxes, and because of said effort, thought him a man of principle. Now it appears he is just another career politician, willing to say and do whatever it takes to win an office for which he appears to be wholly unqualified. He has money from special interest groups behind him, but that appears to be the extent of his qualifications.
It is always sad to watch someone self-destruct, especially in public, but it appears Mr. Needelman is doing just that. Because he has resorted to deceit and mudslinging in his campaign, he will not only lose the race against Scott Ellis, but his good name as well. The tragedy is it could have been avoided had he just run for a different office.
Let’s see:
Spent a career on Florida Marine Patrol, a few terms in the legislature and now he thinks he can run the County Clerk’s Office?
Seems to me he’s looking only to fatten his state retirement check as he has ZERO EXPERIENCE running an office of this magnitude.
For this guy to be running against a fellow Republican (Scott Ellis) who has done an OUTSTANDING job running the Clerk’s office, it can only be one motive – GREED.
Matt,
Don’t you think you should have posted Needelman’s response and recant your words? ” I thought he was both a good man and a good legislator…Now it appears he is just another career politician, willing to say and do whatever it takes to win an office for which he appears to be wholly unqualified.” We all know Needelman is a good man, good legislator and very qualified; you may not like the fact he is running against your guy but let’s not get overcome with emotions in this election…way too easy to take things personally. Vote fact for fact and hope the best person wins!
Needelman’s Response (per website: http://www.mitchforclerk.com):
“I wish to convey my sincere apology to Mr. Ellis for the inaccurate statement made on the Bill Mick radio show regarding Mr. Ellis’ signature on the check for the Sarno Rd. Landfill.
My campaign team follows a strict verification protocol for every piece of information received. It is checked and rechecked before release to the public. Somehow this issue did not go through this process before being released.
I take full responsibility for this error.
To prevent recurrence of this oversight I have implemented a third audit protocol that will test each item yet again before certifying it for release. All information scheduled for future release has been re-examined under this new policy and found to be accurate and true.
Our voters can be confident that the information coming from my campaign is truthful and relevant to the race for Clerk of Courts. The information is based on documented information checked and double checked and you can be assured it is factual.
Again my sincere apologies to Mr. Ellis.”