Sooner or later it had to come. Sooner or later we had to talk about the pink elephant in the room and sooner or later we had to discuss it.
Victoria Siplin is running for the Florida Senate in district 19, a seat currently held by her husband Gary Siplin. Siplin or the Sip as I like to call him. Gary is term limited as he has served the people of district 19, or many would say failed them, since 2003.
So, instead of going into a long drawn out dissertation about why district 19 and the people of Florida do not need another Siplin in the Senate, let’s just take a look at the Sip’s voting record from last year.
In 2011, Mr. Siplin voted yes for a state budget where millions were cut from education and public sector employees were forced to take a three percent pay cut. On issues of women’s health he voted yes to prohibit insurance coverage for abortions.
As regards education, he voted yes for a bill that will measure student growth based solely on test scores and assessments.
Great work Senator Gary Siplin. What a way to let the constituents of your district down by voting yes for bills that will hurt, rather than help them.
Now, on to Mrs. Siplin.
I don’t know Mrs. Siplin personally and frankly, I don’t know her politically either. The only thing I have to go off of with Gary’s better half is that she’s his wife and the mother of his children.
If we have any indication of what district 19 may be in store for if Victoria is elected then, please see above. She may vote yes for state budgets that strip teachers of fair pay or cuts funding for Healthy Start. Victoria may very well be in favor of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, and how it unfairly judges students based on numbers and not necessarily performance.
Mrs. Siplin may also believe that, passing out belts to students is more important than providing proper funding for their education.
Then again I could be totally wrong on Victoria. She may be the best politician that the district has seen in a very long time. She could be the antithesis of Gary and the platform that he stands upon.
Wait, wait, wait… People of district 19 you have two other female candidates running who are the exact opposites of Siplin. Linda Stewart and Geraldine Thompson have proven records of fighting for their constituents and Victoria doesn’t.
Our only judge of Mrs. Siplin’s record is that of her husband and because Linda is a former county commissioner and Geraldine is currently a state representative for district 39, we have actual records by which to judge them.
While I will refrain from endorsing any candidate this early, I do think it’s great to see three women running for political office.
Still—I think Stewart or Thompson will do a far better job than that of another Siplin.
-JH
