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Thursday's letters: In our partisan primaries, the center did not hold

 
Published Aug. 29, 2018

Outsiders in | Aug. 29

The center did not hold

Good grief. Way to go, Florida partisan politics. We ended up with two guys who pandered their way to the extremes with no thought other than sucking up to fans of Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump. Neither of them is qualified to run a state as wonderful as Florida. Florida's partisan primaries divide us to choose between the extremes. We have to be smarter than this in electing our leaders. Will one of the two parties please split already, so that we centrists can actually vote for someone we believe in?

Or how about Adam Putnam and Gwen Graham team up to form a true Florida team, independent of the national parties as a governor and lieutenant governor? Either could assume whichever post and they'll have my vote head over heels over the two divisive lightweights elected in the primaries.

Chad Lembke, St. Petersburg

Another run-off

In my opinion, the Republican voters elected the best choice from their two options — Ron DeSantis (with 56 percent of the votes cast). However, the Democratic choice, Andrew Gillum, won his nomination with only 34 percent of the vote, and for me that's a possible problem.

It could have been that the other four Democratic candidates have a lot in common, and as such they divided the 66 percent among them so that the highest percentage among them (Gwen Graham) was only 31 percent.

I suggest that in such instances, an algorithm determine a run-off. For example, if no one gets more than 50 percent, there would then be a run-off vote for the top two or three. I would feel much better with him as our Democratic representative if he had been chosen this way.

William Emener, St. Pete Beach

Don't 'monkey this up' and elect Andrew Gillum,
Ron DeSantis says | Aug. 29

Didn't take long

It hadn't even been 24 hours since Andrew Gillum became the Democratic candidate for governor, and the Republican candidate Ron DeSantis has already insinuated the term "monkey" into his remarks on Gillum. This is a record.

Deborah Green, Sun City Center

Public safety and guns

Guns and drug tests

Should firefighters be armed? Are judges armed? School Resource Officers, of course, are. But if any public official is armed, drug testing and psychological testing should be mandatory at least yearly.

Don Stiles, St. Petersburg