Tuesday, 07 February 2012
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beverly hills dentist
Divided by emotions and science, Pinellas County commissioners made a decision to stop adding fluoride to normal water inside a group of tense 4-3 votes.
A drive by dentists to oust two commissioners behind the move has arrived not surprisingly.
Much less predictable: Implications that Commissioner Ken Welch, a fluoride supporter, is aiding dentists' tries to unseat his colleagues, Nancy Bostock and Neil Brickfield.
A sequence of emails reveal a group of local dentists' call to donate to Welch's re-election being a "cornerstone" with the effort, ways of lobby to get a about face the fluoride decision, and biting criticism of Commissioner Norm Roche, a fluoride critic, as an "uneducated fool."
Amid that, dentist Johnny Johnson of Palm Harbor wrote which he attended a Welch fund-raiser and was seeking potential election rivals for Bostock and Brickfield, Republicans who voted against adding fluoride.
"We have to ROCK & ROLL!!! Help!!!!!" Johnson wrote.
However when he hit send Jan. 27, Johnson inexplicably emailed the process to Roche.
Roche browse the email and saw proof a political campaign involving one colleague (Welch) against another instead of a further discussion about improving dental care within the county.
"I cannot and does not - either directly or indirectly - be associated with any opposition effort against any of my Board colleagues," Roche warned inside a Sunday email.
Roche, a Republican who recently joined the county's Election Canvassing Board, cited that role like a legal requirement of distancing himself from the activity linked to political campaigning.
Roche did not return a message seeking comment, and Johnson wouldn't normally accept be interviewed concerning the email.
Brickfield expressed surprise to get read that Welch could may play a role inside a campaign against him.
"There's for ages been a culture about the Pinellas County Commission that incumbents do not get associated with races with other incumbents," said Brickfield.
The dentists have not registered a political action committee, nevertheless they have met regularly on how to upend the vote. Most health experts credit fluoride with helping improve dental health for many years.
The group split without success to back a referendum to overturn the fluoride votes. Welch, a fluoride supporter and the board's only Democrat, opposed a ballot measure as risky. He's managed to get remove the 2012 election is a referendum on fluoride.
"I'm not organizing every other campaign, I'm organizing my very own campaign," Welch said. "Other candidates are coming forward in their own business, and it is no secret how the removing fluoride is a big issue on this county."
Johnson attended Welch's campaign kickoff Jan. 26, and wrote that Welch's "first point" in his speech was fluoride. Johnson recommended lining up experts to fulfill with commissioners to raised explain fluoridation. Also, he urged contributions to Commissioner Karen Seel, a Republican who backed fluoridation, and Welch.
Another attendee, Mark Weinkrantz, a Democrat on East Lake's fire commission, said Welch never spoke about an agenda to oust Brickfield or Bostock.
"As far as Ken being involved with any operation? I'm certain Ken has preferences who he would work with, I know anybody would," said Weinkrantz.
At Welch's campaign kickoff on the Hangar Restaurant in St. Petersburg, Johnson met former state Sen. Charlie Justice, a Democrat, whose expected run for the commission spawned from anger within the fluoride vote. Johnson also tried to tap into former lawmaker Janet Long, another Democrat considered more likely to run for commission following your fluoride votes. But she wasn't around.
They'd face Bostock and Brickfield, respectively.
After Johnson's initial email, rhetoric escalated. Roche chided dentists' dedication to helping poor children when most don't accept Medicaid patients. Johnson replied by having an apology and worried the e-mail would impugn the dentists' effort as "poor and under-handed."
Then dentist Ed Hopwood of Clearwater - who denies any Welch involvement organizing opposition - upped the ante against Roche.
"He is surely an uneducated fool who is playing the political game towards the better of his ability," Hopwood wrote, zinging Roche if you are "incapable of having past secondary school."
Concluded Hopwood: "Hang inside, we will be better off when Roche is no longer at work."
Roche expires in 2014.
Bostock brushed off of the re-election threat, saying she could defend her vote as providing people with "individual freedom" to decide on whether to consume fluoride.
But after acrimony dominated the commission next year, she desires a far more civil tone before November's election.
"We don't actually need all this kind of infighting," she said, "because it does not serve anyone."
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