October 6, 2026
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The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters

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Votes-Money Infographic for Wostal Campaign
Featured Politics Society Crack Pots County Commission 

Follow the Votes. Follow the Money.

B. John 53 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Josh Wostal likes to remind people that he represents voters across Hillsborough County. Some of those voters have shown up at County Commission meetings, asking commissioners to slow development in their neighborhoods. In several cases, Wostal voted the other way, even when county planning officials recommended denial or found the proposed development inconsistent with the comprehensive plan.

Then there is the money. Builders, developers, construction firms and land-use interests have contributed substantial sums to Wostal’s political operation. In at least two cases, contributors or business networks tied to his campaign also had development matters come before the commission. None of that proves why Wostal cast a particular vote. It does give voters a reason to look closely at who funds his political operation and what happens when development interests come before him.

And those residents standing at the podium asking him to listen? They are countywide voters too.

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Toledo's Education Votes
Featured Politics Legislature Society Education County Commission 

Jackie Toledo’s Romance With “School Choice” – Right Temperament for County Commission?

B. John 80 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Jackie Toledo spent six years in the Florida House, where she repeatedly supported legislation expanding charter schools and private-school scholarship programs. Her voting record shows how Florida’s school-choice system grew during her time in Tallahassee.

The changes came almost every year. In 2017, Toledo supported legislation to expand charter schools and share certain local school construction funds with them. By 2021, she had also voted to create and expand the Family Empowerment Scholarship, broaden eligibility, and increase scholarship awards. Meanwhile, traditional public schools remained responsible for educating every enrolled child.

Now Toledo wants to serve on the Hillsborough County Commission. Her legislative record raises questions about her approach to public funding and local responsibility. The full article follows five years of education legislation and examines the choices she made along the way.

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Infographic of Wostal's vote total claims
Society Crack Pots County Commission Featured Places Tampa Politics 

When Four Times the Votes Doesn’t Mean Four Times the Support

B. John 83 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Daily Douche-Bag
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Josh Wostal has a unique way of measuring political influence. When people said Hillsborough County doesn’t treat Tampa fairly, he noted that he got far more votes than Tampa’s mayor and at-large City Council members. That sounds impressive until you consider the size of the electorate and voter turnout.

Wostal ran in a countywide November election where 486,230 people voted. Tampa’s at-large council members won their seats in an April runoff with only 25,913 voters. If you compare each candidate to the people who voted in their election, Wostal’s supposed advantage goes away. In fact, some of the votes he mentions came from Tampa residents. So, Hillsborough County is bigger than Tampa. Who would have thought?

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Featured Places Tampa Politics County Commission 

Jackie Toledo and the Curious Case of Local Control

B. John 80 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Jackie Toledo is now seeking a seat on the Hillsborough County Commission, where local officials decide on growth, infrastructure, public safety, and county policy. This makes her time in Tallahassee especially interesting, because she repeatedly supported laws that limited what counties and cities could decide for themselves.

Toledo supported state intervention in areas like impact fees, occupational licensing, utility policy, and even local police budgets; Toledo backed state intervention in matters normally handled close to home. In one case, Tallahassee could even review and overturn a local decision about a police budget.

There is a certain irony in spending years helping state government restrict local author

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Featured Politics Election 

Two Campaigns, Two Very Different Funding Models

B. John 120 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Education
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Campaign finance reports can be tedious, but the District 2 numbers tell a fairly simple story. Daniela Simic’s campaign is driven much more by individual donors and smaller contributions. Brittany Lyssy’s campaign relies far more heavily on large checks, businesses, and political committees. Her latest filings also include direct support from a Hillsborough County Republican organization in a race that is formally nonpartisan.

There is another layer. Lyssy also chairs a separate political committee bearing her name, while part of the education-policy experience she cites comes from the conservative Leadership Institute’s school-board program. That same program has featured Bridget Ziegler in a leadership and training role.

The full article strips away the financial-report clutter and examines who is funding these two campaigns, the political networks surrounding them, and the very different professional backgrounds the candidates would bring to the Hillsborough County School Board.

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Featured Politics Election Stoicism 

Can You Be a Stoic and a Political Activist?

B. John 104 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Can you be a Stoic and still be politically active? I think the answer is not only yes, but that Stoicism gives us a better way to do it. The ancient Stoics did not confuse acceptance with surrender. They accepted what could not be changed, while challenging injustice when action was still possible.

That question feels especially urgent now. We are living in a time when division itself has become a political tool. Culture war fights can dominate attention while people are still struggling with housing, health care, violence, war, and the basic question of whether government can still solve real problems. Anger may be useful in campaigns. It is rarely enough to build a decent society.

Stoicism asks something harder of us. Stay engaged without becoming consumed. Think clearly when others are trying to provoke you. Act with courage when something is wrong. Keep justice at the center. And remember that the people on the other side of a political argument are still part of the same community.

Politics, at its best, is what we choose to do together. This essay asks what Stoicism can teach us about showing up for that shared life, especially when the temptation is to give up, tune out, or shout louder.

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Economy Featured Places Tampa Politics Election 

Cool Classrooms and Common Sense: Why Hillsborough Must Renew the Half-Penny Promise

B. John 140 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections
This entry is in the series Education
This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

Florida summer heat is not theoretical. It is a relentless physical reality. Anyone who expects children to concentrate on algebra or reading in an eighty-eight-degree classroom with a dead air conditioner and water dripping into plastic buckets has never spent an afternoon inside an aging Florida school building. You cannot build academic excellence when students and teachers are simply trying to survive the humidity.

Hillsborough Referendum 3 asks voters to renew the half-cent sales tax for another ten years to pay for air conditioning, roof repairs, and security at schools. Opponents talk about tax fatigue, but this is not a new tax. It keeps the same rate as in 2018. If it ends, your grocery bill will not go down, but school maintenance will lose $120 million a year.

The results speak for themselves. Since 2018, the Half-Penny Promise has funded over 750 projects, including air conditioning upgrades at 177 schools, all overseen by an independent Citizen Oversight Committee. Tourists pay about a quarter of the cost, and over $716 million has gone to local contractors and workers in Hillsborough County.

While the state Capitol stays busy manufacturing political culture wars and diverting public funds into private vouchers, local communities must take care of their own. Read the complete breakdown on why renewing this capital surtax is an investment in our kids, our local workforce, and our neighborhood schools.

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Featured Places Tampa Politics Election Legislature 

Trading Four Votes for One: The Cynical Math Behind Hillsborough’s Commission Power Grab

B. John 130 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections
This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

If someone came to your door and offered to trade four hundred-dollar bills for a ten-dollar bill, you would quickly close the door and check your security cameras. That is exactly the kind of deal behind Hillsborough County Charter Referendum 2, a Tallahassee plan that would undo forty years of balanced local government.

For forty years, Hillsborough has used a mix of four district commissioners and three countywide at-large commissioners. This lets every voter choose four out of seven seats, giving people a say in the majority. Referendum 2 would end this system by expanding the board to nine and removing all at-large seats.

Think about what this means for your representation. You would go from voting for four commissioners to just one. You would not be able to vote for or against the other eight, even though they decide on taxes, infrastructure, and big development projects. Single-member districts encourage commissioners to trade favors for their own areas and ignore countywide needs like Port Tampa Bay and regional transit.

Tallahassee politicians love to lecture local communities about neighborhood control while quietly shrinking our democratic leverage from afar. Read the full commentary to see why trading away four seats for one is a bad trade for Hillsborough taxpayers, and why we must vote No on Charter Referendum 2.

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Education Featured Places Tampa Politics Legislature Society 

The Ballot-Box Bureaucrat: Why Electing Hillsborough’s Superintendent Is Bad for Business and Worse for Classrooms

B. John 203 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections
This entry is in the series Education
This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

Imagine Tampa General Hospital announcing that it will now select its President and CEO through a countywide partisan primary. Picture candidates debating surgical protocols on debate stages, taking a full year off to solicit campaign checks from medical supply reps, and catering to partisan party bosses instead of patient care. No board of trustees would tolerate it, and no major health system would survive it. Yet that is the exact circus Tallahassee politicians want to bring to Hillsborough County Public Schools, the single largest employer in our community.

Proponents dress up the proposal in the language of parental rights and democratic empowerment. But under the current model, the superintendent answers to an elected, seven-member School Board every single day. If the superintendent mishandles district finances, botches bus routes, or mismanages schools, the board can act immediately. Under an elected system, that daily accountability vanishes. The School Board loses its supervisory power, leaving a single partisan politician in charge of a $4 billion budget and 220,000 students, answerable to voters only once every four years.

An even bigger problem is the smaller pool of candidates. Instead of searching the country for experienced school leaders, we would be limited to local registered voters. The best-performing states treat school administration as a professional job, while the only two states that still elect superintendents are not among the top performers.

Injecting culture-war primaries and campaign fundraising into our school system’s executive suite is a disaster waiting to happen. Read the full analysis on why turning school administration into a political prize hurts our students, undermines teachers, and destabilizes our local schools.

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Economy Featured Politics Legislature 

The Free Lunch Mirage: How Florida Amendment 3 Squeezes Renters and Municipalities

B. John 188 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections
This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

Every politician knows that promising a giant tax cut is an easy way to win an applause line. Florida Amendment 3 dangles that exact bait, promising homeowners an expanded homestead exemption and tighter assessment caps. It sounds like an effortless win until you calculate what actually pays for the fire rescue station down the street.

State analysts project this measure will strip over $8 billion from local budgets across Florida in a single year. That is not trimming bureaucratic fat; it is a fiscal sledgehammer aimed directly at 911 dispatchers, sheriff’s deputies, paramedics, and neighborhood road repairs. When both the Florida Sheriffs Association and statewide firefighter unions sound the alarm, voters need to look past the political marketing.

Because essential emergency services cannot simply be shut down, local communities will be forced to raise utility fees and regressive sales taxes to survive. That leaves working families, retirees on fixed incomes, and renters footing the bill for a tax break they will never see. Read the full analysis on why defunding your local first responders is too high a price to pay for a campaign slogan.

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Featured Politics Legislature 

Corporate Welfare in Overalls: The Rural Shell Game of Florida Amendment 2

B. John 220 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections
This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

The television commercials for Florida Amendment 2 are almost entirely self-written. All you have to do is play the acoustic guitar, show the video of a dusty tractor, and then tell the heartwarming tale of a fourth-generation family farmer who is struggling. Although the story is touching, the sentimental presentation covers up a costly performance by the corporation.

Florida businesses currently have a standard exemption of $25,000 for tangible personal property, which covers a significant portion of the equipment needed by genuine small-scale growers. The main benefit of Amendment 2, however, goes to industrial agribusiness syndicates, huge commercial packing houses, and luxury agritourism event venues that operate fleets of machinery costing six figures.

When Tallahassee eliminates equipment taxes on commercial agricultural land, those multi-ton transport trucks do not stop chewing up county roads. The bill simply shifts. County commissions are left to either gut local services or force residential homeowners to make up the difference. Read the full breakdown of how Amendment 2 puts corporate welfare in overalls and leaves local taxpayers holding the tab.

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