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Mike Suarez Knows Insurance. That’s Why I Have Questions.
Mike Suarez says his 30 years in insurance make him the best candidate to tackle Florida’s insurance crisis. With what homeowners and drivers are paying, that sounds like valuable experience. But his campaign finance reports show something else voters should think about: insurance-related interests are also the largest industry group I identified among his contributors.
That doesn’t mean anyone bought Mike Suarez’s vote. But it does mean voters have every right to ask a tougher question. If you’ve worked in an industry for decades and people connected to it give a lot to your campaign, whose interests will matter most when insurers and policyholders want different things?
Suarez wants voters to see his insurance career as a reason to elect him. That’s fair. But his professional and financial ties to that same industry deserve scrutiny too. Florida families don’t need another explanation for high insurance costs. They need someone in Tallahassee who will tell them exactly how their homeowners and auto insurance bills will go down.
Politics
All the hot-button topics about government, state, local, and federal the courts, and the election.
What a Real Hillsborough County Efficiency Review Would Look Like
The Hillsborough County DOGE report raised important questions. However, a true efficiency review must go beyond highlighting large figures. It should test transactions, compare costs, assess workloads, evaluate results, and consider the impact of service reductions.
This final essay outlines the essential elements of a comprehensive review and emphasizes that public trust relies on evidence, not headlines. The objective should be a clear, substantiated case for how each dollar will be saved, rather than the largest possible savings claim.
Science
This includes discussions on scientific topics that include the environment, weather, medicine, and space.
Society
We lump a lot under this category including crime, corruption, education and hate groups. This category runs the gamut.
Culture
Posts on cultural activities such as theater, art, holidays, and music.
Religion
This is our section for articles related to religion, especially Methodism, and the Evangelical movement.
What We Choose Together
Politics can make otherwise reasonable people turn strange. It can harden conversations, flatten human beings into talking points, and tempt us into anger, contempt, or despair. But avoiding public life entirely is also a moral choice. If government is, as Barney Frank once said, “the things we choose to do together,” then citizenship is one of the places where our values become visible.
This essay reflects on a recent Citizen Engagement training at Hyde Park United Methodist, the beginning of the Faith250 series, and Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” as a way into a larger question: what does a Stoic owe to public life? The answer is not withdrawal. It is disciplined participation, rooted in justice, guided by wisdom, restrained by temperance, and sustained by courage.
The Stoic citizen does not control the whole outcome. But we can still show up with clarity. We can still speak truth without surrendering to hatred. We can still widen the circle, lift a lamp, and choose together as wisely and justly as we can.
Technology
Discussions on software, hardware, apps, and gadgets.
LGBT Issues
Here we discuss the politics of the LGBT movement, stories of events in the community, and anything else related to the LGBT community.
Fun Stuff
This is a bit of a collection of stories about family, food, friends, and travel.
The Economy
Here are topics on the economy, trade, and business.
When Justice Outruns Wisdom
“I told her I was ready to give up. I wasn’t. I was frustrated.”
What began as a communication bottleneck in a church office became a lesson in leadership. When drafts moved without review and a public link went live incorrectly, urgency surged. The concern was legitimate. The tone was not. Justice rose quickly. Wisdom lagged behind. Where has urgency outrun wisdom in your week?
In this new essay, I contemplate what the Stoics understood about anger, discipline, and leadership—and why the same dynamic I saw in myself is evident at the highest levels of national leadership. Anger is a signal. It is not a strategy. Wisdom must organize justice, or institutions begin to fray.
Read: When Justice Outruns Wisdom.
Steel-Toed Integrity
When something breaks in the real world, you don’t call a politician to give a speech; you call someone with a toolbox to fix it. That is the leadership Brian Nathan offers Senate District 14. A Navy veteran and IBEW electrician who chose Tampa as his home during the Great Recession, Brian brings a craftsman’s perspective to a political system that is deeply broken.
Read about Brian’s vision for “steel-toed integrity”—a philosophy born on the job site that prioritizes practical solutions for working families over political theater. He is running to fight for affordable housing, good-paying local jobs, and quality education.
The High Price of “Nice”: What Karen Gonzalez Pittman is Actually Costing South Tampa
Is your State Rep costing you money?
On paper, Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman fits South Tampa perfectly. She’s polished, presentable, and active in the community. If you met her at a Palma Ceia mixer, you’d think, “Now, there’s a reasonable person.” But for the wealthy and aspirational residents of District 65, voting for Pittman has become an expensive illusion. You think you’re voting for stability, but you’re actually paying a premium for a representative who consistently prioritizes Tallahassee’s culture war performance art over your bank account.
The most glaring receipt is your property insurance bill. For years, the Republican supermajority, of which Pittman is a loyal member, has promised that if we protected insurance companies from lawsuits, rates would trickle down. Pittman voted for every one of those protections. Yet, while your premiums have doubled, she and her colleagues have spent the legislative session banning books and policing bathrooms rather than fixing the financial crisis that is actually threatening our property values.
There’s a high cost to the “anti-woke” agenda, and South Tampa homeowners are paying it. This is a clear example of Patrimonialism: the state is run for insiders, while regular people get worse service and pay more. It’s time to see what her “nice” image is really costing you.
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Here we talk about topics specific to Tampa, Kings Mountain, and other places I've lived or visited.
