Buddy Dyer Re-elected

Buddy Dyer won the Orlando Mayoral election. A legacy renewed.

For now.

Sadly, only 8.5 percent of the 131,000-strong Orlando voter pool supported Buddy. Less than 2 in 10 voted, garnering 12,000 votes in a city of 238,000.  Hardly overwhelming.

This ain’t no mandate, so please spare us the validating, my-mandate nonsense.

It was a battle of the absentee ballots and that’s a game Dyer plays well.

Imagine: by the time polls opened yesterday, absentee ballots claimed 50% of total voter participation. That’s fifty percent, as in half.

So Buddy Dyer was re-elected. No surprises there. The Buddy System prevailed, but its hardly a triumph for the City of Orlando.

Nothing will change. Neighborhoods will remain ignored. Small businesses will continue to be passed over and minorities will remain shut out of the promised Community Venues opportunities.

The economic apartheid policies of an arrogant, out of touch Mayor do more harm than good.

And that is why we cannot, in good conscience say Congratulations Buddy Dyer.

So we won’t.