Tuesday, 07 February 2012
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beverly hills dentist
Divided by emotions and science, Pinellas County commissioners chose to stop adding fluoride to h2o in a series 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' efforts to unseat his colleagues, Nancy Bostock and Neil Brickfield.
A series of emails reveal a group of local dentists' call to donate to Welch's re-election as a "cornerstone" with the effort, ways of lobby for any about face the fluoride decision, and biting criticism of Commissioner Norm Roche, a fluoride critic, being an "uneducated fool."
Amid that, dentist Johnny Johnson of Palm Harbor wrote he attended a Welch fund-raiser and was seeking potential election rivals for Bostock and Brickfield, Republicans who voted against adding fluoride.
"We must ROCK & ROLL!!! Help!!!!!" Johnson wrote.
However, if he hit send Jan. 27, Johnson inexplicably emailed the process to Roche.
Roche see the email and saw evidence of a political campaign involving one colleague (Welch) against another instead of a further discussion about improving dental treatments inside the county.
"I cannot and will not - either directly or indirectly - be connected with any opposition effort against any of my Board colleagues," Roche warned in the Sunday email.
Roche, a Republican who recently joined the county's Election Canvassing Board, cited that role as a legal requirement of distancing himself from any activity associated with political campaigning.
Roche failed to return a note seeking comment, and Johnson wouldn't normally accept be interviewed about the email.
Brickfield expressed surprise to get read that Welch could are likely involved in a campaign against him.
"There's long been a culture on the Pinellas County Commission that incumbents do not get associated with races with incumbents," said Brickfield.
The dentists have not registered a political action committee, but they have met regularly concerning how to upend the vote. Most health experts credit fluoride with helping improve oral health for decades.
The group split without success to back a referendum to overturn the fluoride votes. Welch, a fluoride supporter as well as the board's only Democrat, opposed a ballot measure as risky. He's made it pay off the 2012 election will be a referendum on fluoride.
"I'm not organizing some other campaign, I'm organizing my own, personal campaign," Welch said. "Other candidates are coming forward in their own business, and it's really not a secret the elimination of fluoride are a wide issue in this county."
Johnson attended Welch's campaign kickoff Jan. 26, and wrote that Welch's "first point" in the speech was fluoride. Johnson recommended arranging 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 a good agenda to oust Brickfield or Bostock.
"As far as Ken being involved in any operation? I know Ken has preferences who he would work with, I know anybody would," said Weinkrantz.
At Welch's campaign kickoff in the Hangar Restaurant in St. Petersburg, Johnson met former state Sen. Charlie Justice, a Democrat, whose expected run for the commission spawned from anger on the fluoride vote. Johnson also attemptedto tap into former lawmaker Janet Long, another Democrat considered likely to run for commission following your fluoride votes. But she wasn't around.
They might face Bostock and Brickfield, respectively.
After Johnson's initial email, rhetoric escalated. Roche chided dentists' resolve for helping poor children when most don't accept Medicaid patients. Johnson replied by having an apology and worried the email 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 an uneducated fool who's playing the political game to the best of his ability," Hopwood wrote, zinging Roche for being "incapable of having past secondary school."
Concluded Hopwood: "Hang in there, we are going to be best when Roche is no longer at work."
Roche expires in 2014.
Bostock brushed off the re-election threat, saying she can defend her vote as giving people "individual freedom" to choose whether or not to consume fluoride.
But after acrimony dominated the commission next year, she desires a more civil tone before November's election.
"We don't actually need all of this sort of infighting," she said, "because it does not serve anyone."
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