If you are a resident of Clearwater, please exercise your right to vote today. As I have said since he announced his candidacy, I wholeheartedly support Mark Bunker for Seat 2 on the Clearwater City Council. Mark has changed the landscape of city politics in Clearwater by simply being in the race. He has forced those running for office to have to confront the issue of scientology and its impact on the local community. With no political history and no real "campaign" organized, it has been a word of mouth, grassroots effort. If you don't want scientology to hoodwink the city into the … [Read more...]
Clearwater City Elections — Scientology Endorsements
A recent article in FlaPol (FloridaPolitics.com) reports on recommendations from scientologists "Citizens for Social Reform" (Brett Miller, Joanie and Steve Sigal) These are the surrogates who deliver the political direction of the church without being a formalized statement from the institution. Why do they do it this way? Because if the church itself published them it would run afoul of 501(c)3 prohibitions against political endorsements (though the Evangelicals don't seem to be too concerned about that). But make no mistake, the "Citizens for Social Reform" are just another scientology … [Read more...]
Mark Bunker’s New Scientology Hit Squad
Clearly scientology is worried that Mark Bunker is proving to be a viable candidate for the Clearwater City Council. They are now resorting to one of their tried and true tactics against those who worry them the most (see below in this blogpost for earlier examples of the same playbook). Following is a series of short videos of a recent candidates forum. Scientology sent along a gaggle of hecklers to disrupt Mark's statements -- pursuant to the policies of L. Ron Hubbard. Unfortunately, there is no video showing their faces -- perhaps next time when both Aaron Smith-Levin and I … [Read more...]
Where Clearwater Candidates Stand on Scientology
Tracey McManus published another of her uniformly excellent articles recently: Where every Clearwater City Council Candidate stands on Scientology I have excerpted most of the answers to her survey and offer my biased views on them. I believe there are just two reasons why scientology is actually being spoken about in this election. It has been a taboo subject for local politicians for decades. They have steered clear of this topic like it was the plague... Now for the first time in recent memory, it is something to be debated. The two factors are Tracey's bombshell article … [Read more...]