beverly hills dentist
A drive by dentists to oust two commissioners behind the move has arrived needlessly to say.
Much less predictable: Implications that Commissioner Ken Welch, a fluoride supporter, is aiding dentists' efforts to unseat his colleagues, Nancy Bostock and Neil Brickfield.
A sequence of emails reveal a group of local dentists' call to give to Welch's re-election like a "cornerstone" of the effort, ways to lobby to get a reversal of the fluoride decision, and biting criticism of Commissioner Norm Roche, a fluoride critic, as a possible "uneducated fool."
Amid that, dentist Johnny Johnson of Palm Harbor wrote which he attended a Welch fund-raiser and was seeking potential election rivals for Bostock and Brickfield, Republicans who voted against adding fluoride.
"We need to ROCK & ROLL!!! Help!!!!!" Johnson wrote.
However, if he hit send Jan. 27, Johnson inexplicably emailed the tactic to Roche.
Roche see the email and saw proof of a political campaign involving one colleague (Welch) against another rather than a further discussion about improving dental treatments in the county.
"I cannot and won't - either directly or indirectly - be connected with any opposition effort against any of my Board colleagues," Roche warned in the Sunday email.
Roche, a Republican who recently joined the county's Election Canvassing Board, cited that role as a legal dependence on distancing himself from any activity linked to political campaigning.
Roche failed to return an email seeking comment, and Johnson would not consent to be interviewed about the email.
Brickfield expressed surprise to get read that Welch could play a role in a campaign against him.
"There's long been a culture around the Pinellas County Commission that incumbents avoid getting involved in races with other incumbents," said Brickfield.
The dentists have not registered a political action committee, however they have met regularly on how to upend the vote. Most health experts credit fluoride with helping improve teeth's health for decades.
The group split without success to back a referendum to overturn the fluoride votes. Welch, a fluoride supporter and the board's only Democrat, opposed a ballot measure as risky. He's managed to get pay off the 2012 election is a referendum on fluoride.
"I'm not organizing any other campaign, I'm organizing my own, personal campaign," Welch said. "Other candidates are coming forward in their own business, and it's really not a secret how the removing fluoride are a wide issue in this county."
Johnson attended Welch's campaign kickoff Jan. 26, and wrote that Welch's "first point" as part of his speech was fluoride. Johnson recommended arranging experts to meet with commissioners to raised explain fluoridation. Also, he urged contributions to Commissioner Karen Seel, a Republican who backed fluoridation, and Welch.
Another attendee, Mark Weinkrantz, a Democrat on East Lake's fire commission, said Welch never spoke about a agenda to oust Brickfield or Bostock.
"As far as Ken being involved in any operation? I know Ken has preferences who he'd use, I'm sure anybody would," said Weinkrantz.
At Welch's campaign kickoff on the Hangar Restaurant in St. Petersburg, Johnson met former state Sen. Charlie Justice, a Democrat, whose expected run for the commission spawned from anger over the fluoride vote. Johnson also attemptedto touch base with former lawmaker Janet Long, another Democrat considered likely to run for commission following your fluoride votes. But she wasn't around.
They might face Bostock and Brickfield, respectively.
After Johnson's initial email, rhetoric escalated. Roche chided dentists' dedication to helping poor children when most don't accept Medicaid patients. Johnson replied having an apology and worried the email would impugn the dentists' effort as "poor and under-handed."
Then dentist Ed Hopwood of Clearwater - who denies any Welch involvement organizing opposition - upped the ante against Roche.
"He is definitely an uneducated fool who's playing the political game to the better of his ability," Hopwood wrote, zinging Roche for being "incapable of having past secondary school."
Concluded Hopwood: "Hang in there, we are going to be more satisfied when Roche is no longer in office."
Roche expires in 2014.
Bostock brushed off the re-election threat, saying she will defend her vote as providing people with "individual freedom" to select if they should consume fluoride.
But after acrimony dominated the commission in 2011, she hopes for a far more civil tone before November's election.
"We don't actually need this all kind of infighting," she said, "because it won't serve anyone."
