Councilwoman Megan Pratt has played it safe on two of the biggest issues facing the City of Pensacola in the last two years. She stayed neutral during the 2009 charter vote. Pratt posted a FAQ article on her blog, but never took a stand. She bowed out completely of the mayor’s race, not posting anything about the election on her blog.
Pratt has led the fight on the city council for the council to have its own staff, separate from the administration. She also favored the council president being paid more than the other council members. In tight budgetary times, the fiscal conservative didn’t seem to be concerned over the additional costs.
Still Pratt appeared yesterday to have pull the perfect political end run–a move worthy of the backroom politics of the past. Having her surrogates convince Hall and Jerralds to drop out was brilliant. With her election, the Big Money Guys would have had someone in place to block Hayward and control who got appointed to PEDC and the regional transportation authority.
What they overlooked was PC Wu, whose district overwhelmingly supported Ashton Hayward (52%-48%). District 1 has always wanted change. Wu was smart enough to understand that and to realize that Councilwoman Maren DeWeese wouldn’t bring hidden agendas to the position. One thing about DeWeese is she tells you what she thinks. Also Wu and DeWeese are both big supporters of police and fire.
The other interesting aside is the failure of Jerralds and Ron Townsend to pick the winning side yet again. Despite phone calls from their constituents for DeWeese, the pair chose Pratt, who has shown little interest for their districts. I hope Jerralds gets the campaign contributions that he was promised and Townsend will wake up and realize that he continues to hurt his district. My bets are neither will happen.