What has Florida House Representative Barbara Watson been doing since she was elected last November? According to her voting record, not much.
On April 18, 2013, she voted nay on SB 718, Amends Alimony Provisions. On April 24, 2013, she voted nay on HB 569, Increases Campaign Contribution Limits. As far as I can tell, she has not introduced any legislation of her own so far.
According to her page on the Florida House of Representatives’ website, Rep. Watson is on four House Committees:
- Rulemaking Oversight & Repeal Subcommittee (Democratic Ranking Member)
- Energy & Utilities Subcommittee
- Regulatory Affairs Committee
- Transportation & Highway Safety Subcommittee
Click on any one of these links to see the Committee Documents, Meeting Notices, Proposed Committee Bills, etc., and you’ll find (surprise, surprise!) NOTHING. No meetings, no documents, no bills. Nada, zip, zilch, bupkes.
Barbara Watson has been the State House Representative of District 107 for eight months and HAS DONE NOTHING for her constituents since her arrival.
Unless you happen to be a teacher, in which case she voted NO on your pay raise.
North Miami Beach councilcritter Frantz Pierre, who happens to be a teacher, supported Barbara Watson against her opponent, John Patrick Julien, and she just told him NO SOUP FOR YOU!
How’s that working out for you, Frantzie?
Considering that Watson earned an F from the Foundation for Florida’s Future, an organization that grades the Legislature for their voting record, it would appear she is no friend of teachers. L’il Frantzie P should have known better.
Florida House District 107 covers Miami Gardens, most of North Miami Beach and a sizable portion of North Miami. As such, Barbara Watson is charged with representing 156,958 residents, 117,446 of which are of voting age (of which 82,334 are registered), who apparently have no clue that no one is minding the store.
District 107 includes 17,469 registered voters who are residents of North Miami Beach. At least half of those who bothered to vote at all, cast their vote for Barbara Watson. I’m not sure if these NMB voters were aware that Watson will most likely again attempt to introduce legislation amending Florida Statute 180.191 regarding public utilities to do away with our ability to impose a 25 percent surcharge on customers outside our city limits. It’s quite obvious that Watson’s primary concern is to protect our water department’s customers in her home city of Miami Gardens at the expense of NMB residents, who stand to lose revenue should such legislation pass. Our own water bills would necessarily increase as a result, yet her loyalties are apparently with residents outside North Miami Beach.
Watson’s agenda is painfully transparent:
She hates teachers.
She hates North Miami Beach.
She hates voting FOR anything. (The lone exception being her vote in the affirmative for prayer in public schools.)
Barbara Watson, however, is apparently all for absentee ballot voting, and by logical extension, absentee ballot fraud. According to public records, she paid a total of $4,770.00 the self-dubbed Queen of Absentee Ballots Noucelie Josna to beat out her opponent, John Patrick Julien in the last election by 13 votes. Ms. Josna’s “specialty” is rounding up absentee ballots from nursing home residents, and she hit up two such institutions for voters, some of whom were “believed to be deceased and/or no longer residing at Watercrest (nursing home)” or claimed to not have voted at all, even though the Miami-Dade Elections Department counted their ballots. As I reported in Voter fraud gets a green light, “sixteen nursing home residents from precincts 123 and 130 whose votes were counted even though they claim they neither requested nor mailed in absentee ballots. These people wanted to testify but they were not allowed to travel to Tallahassee because of nursing home insurance laws. Early in the trial, Mr. Julien’s attorney had requested that their testimony be permitted via Skype, and the judge denied his request. Interesting that he allowed a scofflaw, such as Noucelie Josna, to appear via internet, but refused to hear testimony from sixteen people whose votes were clearly stolen.”
Nevertheless, those who voted for Barbara Watson proved that they don’t give a crap about voter fraud.
They apparently don’t care about education, either.
That Frantz Pierre would support voter fraud is not surprising. That he would be against giving raises to teachers is head scratching. Then again, no one has ever accused The P Man of having brains.
As our State Representative, John Patrick Julien gave legislative reports at North Miami and North Miami Beach council meetings on a regular basis. He also scheduled many town hall meetings throughout his term.
Little wonder that Barbara Watson has not done the same. She has nothing to report since she’s done absolutely nothing of substance since she’s occupied the District 107 seat in Tallahassee.
Except to vote NO, of course.
If she didn’t show up in Tallahassee, nothing would change. Hopefully the next time around, voters will wake up and elect someone who will work for us instead of against us!
This column was brought to you by the letters:
Stephanie Kienzle
Spreading the Wealth
It’s a little harsh to say, “those who voted for Barbara Watson proved that they don’t give a crap about voter fraud.” Why in the world would you presume they knew about it? On the other hand, the courts knew about it and did nothing just as they do nothing about the violations of candidate residence requirements.
I guess I should have said that voters who read my column were informed since I write extensively about the absentee ballot fraud and the ensuing lawsuit. Regular readers can’t say they didn’t know. If they decided voter fraud didn’t matter I can’t help them with that. They get the government they deserve.