By Anne H. Oman
Reporter-At-Large
October 16, 2018 4:00 a.m.
Healthcare. Gun safety. Education. The Environment. Beach access. Fair play for labor.
These were the main issues on the agenda and on the minds of the approximately a hundred people who gathered on the lawn of the Kraft Athletic Club late Sunday afternoon to hear and cheer Chris King, the Democratic candidate for Florida Lieutenant Governor in an event tagged “Bring It Home Nassau,” sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the United Steelworkers (USW).
“We have to put in the right people – people friendly to labor,” explained José Perez, an electrician at Rayonier and a member of both the IBEW and the Kraft Athletic Club, originally founded to provide recreation for workers at the island’s paper mills.
As they waited for Mr. King, a series of speakers mounted a stage set on the edge of the Amelia River and festooned with signs supporting all of the Democratic candidates to warm up the friendly crowd.
“Can we survive? Can we retire? Can we get healthcare when we retire? “asked Russell Harper, President of the North Florida Central Labor Council.
“We’re still the greatest country in the world,” he said, as the American flag on the stage fluttered in the gentle breeze. “But we’re not where we were. There was a time when businesses, even mom-and-pop businesses, took care of their workers…. Nobody should have to work three jobs to support their kids.”
“Yeah!” cried out enthusiastic audience members.
Nathcelly Rohrbaugh, the Democratic nominee for state representative, told the crowd he was running “to confront gun violence in our community.”
Mr. Rohrbaugh, a self-described “stay-at-home dad” whose young family sat in the front row, said he decided to run after the Parkland tragedy, in which a gunman killed 17 students and staff members at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, injuring 17 others. He is seeking to unseat Republican Cord Byrd, an outspoken gun rights advocate whose law firm specializes in gun cases.
The candidate, whose first name means “I Love You,” in the Mayan language, said his Mexican-born mother picked the name after a visit to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula. In addition to gun violence, he attacked his rival’s stance on education, decrying low teacher pay and a resultant teacher shortage.
“That’s right,” shouted an audience member.
“Tallahassee is weakening our public schools and attacking our unions,“ said Mr. Rohrbaugh, adding that “Cord Byrd voted to decertify the teachers union.”
(An omnibus education bill, H.B. 7055, which passed with overwhelming Republican support and was signed by Governor Rick Scott in March, provides that unless teachers unions enroll at least half of eligible staffers as dues paying members they stand to lose collective bargaining rights.)
Candidate Rohrbaugh, who said he holds a degree in biochemistry, told the group that “in Florida, the economy and the environment are closely linked – we need to elect people who are science-literate.”
Mr. King was running late, the organizers announced, declaring an intermission and asking the audience to help rearrange the folding chairs, which has been set up in anticipation of a much larger crowd.
As José Perez, the IBEW organizer of the event, perspiring under the strong sun, hauled chairs, a reporter asked if he was disappointed in the turnout.
“We’re in the heart of red – Nassau County is very Republican,” he replied. “Everybody’s excited. It’s the first step of many more to come.”
Audience members stretched, helped themselves to bottles of water from the coolers scattered on the lawn, and talked about why they were there.
“I’m here because I support Andrew Gillum,” said Bobbie Morgan-Jones, a member of the postal workers union who retired to American Beach after serving as Postmaster of Teaneck, New Jersey. “It’s time for Democrats to run this place and give us something to be proud of.”
Dane and Susan Carmichael, Canadian transplants and naturalized Americans who came to Fernandina Beach in 2005, said they wanted to see here some of the positive things they had enjoyed in Canada: “well paid teachers, care of the environment, managed healthcare.”
“We know the Canadian healthcare system isn’t perfect – we know from the experience of taking care of our elderly parents – but it works for most people,” said Mr. Carmichael.
Healthcare was also on the minds of Fernandina Beach residents Peter and Debbie Williams.
“We’re 27th in the world in medical outcomes,“ said Peter Williams, a retired cardiologist, citing World Health Organization figures.
“And we spend twice as much for medical care as other countries.”
(A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund ranked the U.S. last in health care quality among 11 developed nations despite the fact that the U.S. spends more as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product than all the other countries studied.)
Dr. Williams called for more and better preventive care: “We won’t pay for preventive diabetes care, but when diabetes patients develop kidney failure we pay for dialysis, which is much more expensive.”
Jacquie Leary, who, with her husband, Don, held a fundraiser in her home for Nathcelly Rohrbaugh, said she was at Sunday’s event to support him, especially on the issues of gun safety and the environment.
As the scent of citronella drifted in the soft, warm air, the ebbing tide exposed a string oyster beds in the river and the sun dipped in the near-cloudless blue sky, silhouetting the remaining speakers.
“I jumped into the race late – when I found that no other Democrat was going to challenge Aaron Bean,” said Florida Senate hopeful Billee Bussard, promising the group that “when I get to Tallahassee I know where the money is and where the skeletons are buried.”
Marian Philips, a representative of the 200,000- member Florida Education Association, took the podium to introduce Mr. King, but first took a swipe at two bills passed by the Republican-controlled legislature this year: H.B. 7026, with a provision to arm teachers (“We have no business carrying a gun on campus – we are educators not policemen,” she said, adding that the law is poorly funded, forcing school districts to scramble for money to pay police guards.) and H.B. 631, giving beachfront property owners rights to the dry sand area between the first dune and the high water line.
Welcoming candidate King “to one of the most beautiful islands in America – Amelia Island,” Ms. Philips pointed to the dramatic backdrop of the sun splashed river and asked: “Have we picked a great spot to do this or what?”
The crowd cheered and applauded its agreement as Chris King bounded onto the stage, predicting that “this is going to be a historic election.”
Mr. King, an Orlando native and an entrepreneur assured the audience that “we value labor and unions and everything they represent.
“We want to serve the people of Nassau County,” he said. “We want healthcare for all, regardless of whether they have pre-existing conditions. We’re running against a guy who voted against protecting people with pre-existing conditions.”
(Congressman Ron DeSantis, the Republican candidate for governor, voted in 2017 to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, i.e. “Obamacare” with the American Health Care Act, which would have allowed states to seek waivers to charge patients with pre-existing conditions higher premiums. The measure, which failed, could have affected more than three million Floridians with preexisting conditions, according to Politico.)
Mr. King, who has two sons in public schools, assured teachers that “help is on the way – we need to pay teachers what they’re worth.”
Indicating the river behind him, with its beds of oysters (which industrial pollution has rendered unsafe to harvest) and referencing the red tides that have afflicted Florida’s Gulf Coast, Mr. King vowed to protect the state’s ecosystem so that Florida wouldn’t look like a sci-fi horror movie..
Although he didn’t mention gun safety in his short talk, Mr. King told the Observer in an interview that “gun safety is a huge issue” and that he and Andrew Gillum support universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons. He also vowed that their administration would “seek to repeal” the law giving dry sand property rights to beachfront owners, which he characterized as a favor to the “wealthy and well-connected” and predicted that, due to the popular pushback, repeal would also draw some Republican support.
Thereupon the sun staged a spectacular finale, turning the river bright orange as it sank in the west. Attendees headed for their cars, and volunteers in bright blue Gillum tee shirts picked up discarded water bottles and folded and stacked the remaining chairs. And candidate King, who had started the day with a meeting in Miami’s Little Haiti, hurried off to Tampa for yet another political event.
Editor’s Note: Anne H. Oman relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications.