Vicious Vicki Vargo

Vicki Vargo is, sadly, my representative to the Orlando City Council. She's up for re-election again and is once again running on the idea that distorting the truth or outright lies are the best way to campaign for a position that you don't have any right holding.

Vicious Vicki seems to want to turn College Park (the part of Orlando I live in) into another downtown Orlando. She has already pushed through the construction of an 8 story building in an area where the tallest building was 3 stories. She has also pushed a change in Edgewater drive from a 4 lane main street through the area to a 3 lane (1 is a turn lane) traffic jam hurting many of the smaller business on that section of Edgewater.

But that's not why I call her Vicious Vicki. No, all that just makes her a tool of the developers.

I call her Vicious Vicki because of the way she runs her election campaigns.

She first ran 6 years ago. At the time the U.S. Navy was closing the majority of the Orlando Naval Base. The land that would no longer be needed was part of the district Vicki wanted to "represent."

I don't remember who she ran against but I do remember a "poll" that I answered one evening that was a blatant campaign plug for Vargo. The so-called poll asked many leading questions that made Vargo look good and her opponent look bad. One question went along the lines of did I think the city should buy the naval base property for millions of dollars or sell it for billions of dollars. When I pointed out to the person doing the polling that in order to sell the land the city would first have to buy it, she agreed but also said that she didn't think I was supposed to realize that. It turned out she worked for a company that did these polls for clients.

Vargo won that campaign and I think that issue is what helped her win.

The election in 2000 was a special election. She had to formally run again in 2002. That year she sent out a mailing just before the election that stated that her opponent was a gasp Democrat. That he horrors would not tell anyone if he had voted for George W. or not.

The facts that the position is a non-partisan position and it is every voters right not to tell who they voted for didn't matter to Vicious Vicki. All that mattered was getting Republican voters who might not like her to vote for her anyway. And it worked.

This year Vargo is again running for re-election. She's running against Robert Stuart. Neither got enough votes in the first round so they are each hoping that they come out on top in the run-off election on April 11^th. Once again, Vargo is up to her old bag of tricks.

Vargo has so far refused to debate Stuart. Nor will she answer reporters questions about her abuse of her franking privileges. Franking privileges let government officials send mail without postage. From October 1, 2005 until March 27, 2006 Vargo has spent $6,140 of tax payers money on postage. The next highest amount by an Orlando city commissioner is $220.15.

I got one of these postcards that claim to be an informational piece that she created. I received it right after the first election in March. Vargo's post card asked me to contact her regarding questions, concerns, or ideas I might have on impending matters. Admirable, but I doubt she'd really want to hear my idea that she drop out of the race for City Commissioner. She also claimed that she'd listed the Advisory Boards on the back just to help me get more involved. I would have been more impressed if it was not obvious that the postcard was pre-printed with the list and was available to anyone who wanted one.

She also wished me a happy birthday. Something that Vargo has never done before.

Even though Vargo won't debate the issues, she's found a way to attack Stuart and distort the truth.

On March 30^th Vargo started attacking Stuart for an e-mail sent earlier in the month to his distribution list. The e-mail was accidentally sent from Stuart's home using his business e-mail address. She even created a web page which I won't dignify with a link.

Vargo's claim is that Stuart, Executive Director of the Christian Service Center, intentionally broke IRS rules for political gain.

The Christian Service Center is a charitable organization. The e-mail was sent to supporters from Stuart's house using his work e-mail address. Stuart has denied none of this.

What Vicious Vicki doesn't tell on her smear web site is that Stuart sent only two political e-mails from his business address. Stuart admitted it, apologized for it, stated it was an accident and has deleted the work e-mail address from his home computer all 12 hours before Vargo decided to attack him on the issue.

I have more than one e-mail address that I access from the same mail program on my computer. When you leave a comment to me it goes to an address that I set up to deal with this blog only. It's not my primary address, though, and I have sent messages to people in regards to this blog from my primary address.

Because I've made the same mistake, I am willing to believe Stuart's story. I'm also willing to believe it because he admitted it before Vargo started attacking him with this one e-mail.

Vicious Vicki is relentless in using this two e-mails as proof that Stuart is using the Christian Service Center to promote his campaign. Here's a quote from a flyer I received on Friday from Vargo:

Robert Stuart is using the charitable organization he works for to promote his political campaign.

Vargo doesn't want to debate the issues because she knows she would lose. She's done nothing to help the homeless. She's changed her position time and again in regards to local issues of growth management and traffic (what's that word, oh yeah: flipflopped). She's given millions of dollars away to developers and increased taxes in Orlando.

Vargo claims that she's the most accessible city commissioner this district has ever had. That's probably true. She'll see anyone. She just doesn't truly represent everyone in her district. She sure as hell doesn't represent College Park. Unless you think 8 story buildings dwarfing the remaining mostly 1 and 2 story buildings is a good thing.

Oh, and don't make her angry. She'll take you off her mailing list. Oops.

Update Two corrections were made due to errors pointed out by a comment. Those corrections are in italics. The commentor's claim, however, that Stuart is running his campaign out of the Christian Service Center, is wrong. See my response to anonymous for more information.

(Crossposted on Can't Keep Quiet!)