Leon County Commissioner Nick Maddox has remained quiet about a vulgar text message aimed at him during a recent Blueprint meeting – until now.
Maddox addresses the text sent by Max Herrle – which referred to him as a “dumb little bastard” – as “racist on its face”.
He also addressed the lack of a response by Leon County Commissioner Kristin Dozier – one of the recipients of the text – as “telling and hurtful.”
The text message occurred during the meeting addressing the funding for the Doak Campbell renovations, which Maddox supported. Maddox noted the vote was to finance not only the FSU stadium project, but a total of nine major projects countywide worth $117 million.
Progressives
Maddox also addresses the divide among elected leaders that has become more defined over the last two years.
Maddox says, “the bigger picture is becoming harder and more potentially dangerous for our community to ignore. It’s a shift from a responsible and collegial North Florida brand of democratic politics to a more extreme liberal progressive agenda ushered in by mostly younger (millennial), white elected officials, and their supporters.”
Maddox continued, “this new brand of progressives who want to occupy and take over City Hall are proud to be educated on racial injustice but want to tell Black elected officials how to vote or explain to us the impact of our votes on the people we represent.”
While he does not name the progressive leaders, it is clear he is referring to City Commissioners Jack Porter, Jeremy Matlow and County Commissioner Kristin Dozier.
Maddox also takes the time to point out that Herrle – who is Jack Porter’s boyfriend – says he is not a lobbyist, but that text messages sent during the Blueprint meeting indicates otherwise.
Maddox noted, Herrle “sent additional texts to the same commissioners imploring them to ‘stay until the end of the meeting’ – when City Commissioner Jack Porter, would make a motion to re-evaluate the organizational structure of the Blueprint program.”
Herrle has worked on the campaigns of Leon County Commissioner Brian Welch, City Commissioner Jack Porter, and City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow.
Maddox is running for reelection this cycle and faces five challengers.
Nick Maddox Responds to “Dumb Little Bastard” Text, Calls Out Progressives added by Steve Stewart on
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MAX HERLE. Blueprint and HOA darling. Hard to believe he would use such language.
@ Calliope,
It is public record.
While Steve won’t say how much ad money he’s taking from the local government, it’s clear that it’s a enough to change the entire editorial stance of his blog.
Woke commissioner that sexually harassed staff at the Boys and Girls Club calls people racist for opposing Doak repairs Calling anything you don’t like racist you instantly lose credibility
Indeed, a true conservative would be a welcome sight in 2022. Imagine a City Commissioner, or Mayor for that matter, who wound actually support our amazing Governor. One who would actually support law enforcement not vilify them as in other failed Cities with high crime. One who believes in parental rights, not pandering to the crazy progressives hoping to take over Tallahassee. If only, someone like that was brave enough to run for office. If only.
Lobbying means there’s a paying client. That’s the difference between Drew Jones who ran the campaigns of Dailey, Maddox, Jimbo Jackson, Mary Ann Lindley, Desloge, Elaine Bryant and generally the Chamber/developer candidates and then illegally lobbied them on behalf of the clients who funded their campaigns and Max, who is more of a hobbyist.
Woke Maddox calling the voters racist is something else. Kudos to Matlow for raising these serious unanswered questions about why Ben Pingree was hired at a bar, why Blueprint leadership thinks it is outside Sunshine, etc. His Maddox-linked/Chambercrat opponent Bellamy is 100% funded by the insiders trying to stop reform.
Are there any conservatives running? We need to replace the school board also.
Ah, yall conservatives are so predictable its hilarious. Here you are with a perfect opportunity to develop a relationship with a potential ally in Maddox, but you snowflakes are so triggered by your fear of black people even mentioning racism that it blinds you to the possibility. Stay failing, clowns.
Check out this story from Tallahassee Democrat: Maddox faced sexual harassment complaint before exit at nonprofit
Nick Maddox was accused by an employee who is also a close relative of an opponent in the 2022 election.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2022/02/07/nick-maddox-leon-county-commission-sexual-harassment-boys-and-girls-club/6628718001/
@ Snidely Whiplash, Thank You for those kind words.
“…. ‘stay until the end of the meeting’ – when City Commissioner Jack Porter, would make a motion to re-evaluate the organizational structure of the Blueprint program.”” …………. Considering how it is spending the Money, I say she is right on this one. FSU said that if they didn’t get the Money, they were going to move forward anyway so, why was the money given? As far as FAMU getting $10 Million, it was long over due. That still doesn’t come close to the $Millions the County and City has given FSU.
I call my nephew “dumb little bastard” all the time and it has nothing to do with race. It’s almost always after he say’s “hey Uncle Michael, watch this…” Sometimes I mutter it, but I mean it just the same. I’m all for going after progressives but he needs to toughen up a little bit. Not every pejorative is a racial slur. “Dumb little bastard” is about intelligence, stature and paternity. Seems smart enough, doesn’t look little, and in 2022 no one cares if his mother was married when she punched him out, so he should get over it and make a good argument. Its going to be tough to get me to vote for John Dailey, I’d rather have a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
Honestly none of the elected nannies currently in office should be reelected. However the majority of their compitition are likely extreem leftists and likley wont be any better – some based on their local contributions will likely be monsters…the only ray of sunshine will be if somehow David T. Hawkins gets elected. Granted David T. will be a minority of one conservative and that one vote wont make any substantial difference whatsoever in most situations. However it will be fun to watch David call out the leftist nannies and generally annoy the crap out of our vast majority of leftist nannies in local government. Go David T. Go looking forward to seeing you as the one and only voice of common sense in local government!!!!!
Give ’em #ell David T.
Maddox playing the race-card is an act of desperation. He’s starting to worry about loosing a reelection and subsequent chairmanship of the Blueprint 2020 Board. He saw Brian Desloge loose to Brian Welch after Desloge forced through the unpopular Welaunee development expansion. Informed voters don’t forget these things come election time.
PS: … say what you will about my grandpa, but I’ll thank you to leave my grammar out of this… she was a great lady.
@ Jack… I think you off a bit on your criticism of TR here. A careful and critical read of the article indicates that TR is simply doing its job; reporting on the happening. I don’t recall TR reporting anything about this “text” until Maddox opened his mouth about it. If I’m wrong on that, I’m certain I’ll be corrected, and stand corrected. That said;
I’m turned off by Maddox’ use of the “race card”. Base on what I’ve read of this, I don’t see that at all. A classless, unprofessional, and ill-advised text to be sure… but not racist from my perspective. You’d do well to lay off personal attacks as well. It is not becoming.
As for the FSU stadium boondoggle, it was a mistake… for the following pragmatic reason, again, in my opinion. It was going to happen because the precedence was set with the $10-million to FAMU. However, the give should have been equitable only; $10-million. Frankly, I’m surprised FAMU hasn’t been back demanding another $10-million… in the interest of “equity” of course. Unless you intend to argue that the HBCU value to this community is somehow worth 1/2 of the FSU value. Good luck justifying that position by the way.
Again, in my opinion, the entire Blueprint program needs to be reviewed and restructured with a goal of full transparency and required “empirical” data to support any investment… to name a few. Your duty is sound fiscal judgment and stewardship of the community’s tax dollar investments. Pie-in-the-sky “claims” of an economic return on the investment can no longer suffice.
Nick Maddox playing the race card is getting stale and fails to be convincing.
His reason for his Blueprint YES vote for stadium seats is laughable.
He has double dipped and voted for Special Interests, for personal gain, that made him an ineffective commissioner.
His partners in crime: Mayor Dailey, Dianne Williams-Cox, and Bill Proctor will be voted out of office in August due to forsaking the citizens they serve and choosing quid pro quo over the citizens.
Here TR was trying to do Nick a solid, and the first clown up to bat in the comments is such a rock-ribbed racist that he can’t even identify the play (or spell). This IS instructive, though. That’s a well-honed statement from Maddox, and looks like it got shared around several PR departments before it saw the light of day. The COC is going to play the extremist card against the opposition, is probably the message we can take away. Problem is, that opposition has swelled to tidal wave proportions, and it’s corruption that they’re targeting. Smart, articulate candidates are popping up whack-a-mole everywhere one looks. Nick and the big money that have propped him up are on the way out. I dare say that a lot of conservatives, tired of the corruption, are going to join them. I was under the impression that TR was part of the right-wing anti-corruption insurgency, and would revile the remaining dregs of the Scott Maddox crowd; looks like they’ve been bought out.
Be sure to encourage non-progressive voters to vote local. I might be wrong, but from my experience with both sides, the right greatly underestimates the importance. Meanwhile, my progressive friends have great networking abilities, and everyone is a friend of, or friend of a friend of the more left-leaning commissioners. They can advertise heavily for these candidates for funsies. They’re good people in their day to day, but definitely have some radical interests. I’m disappointed with the right, too, but I feel we need a better balance here.
There are two clear factions in the Democrat party: the old guard that has been running things for years and the new woke crowd.
I think the old guard is the lesser of the two evils. I would love to have MAGA candidates to vote for but I don’t currently have that option. So given the choices, I will definitely vote against the woke mob candidates (Matlow, Porter & Dozier) when I can.
@Tallahassee Native – I agree the woke politicians will ruin this city just as they have ruined every city they control. I don’t want to be hiding in my home while “peaceful protestors” loot, burn & riot, the police are told to stand down and they lecture us about privilege, racism, patriarchy …… and on and on.
Campaign Contributions tell me how you will be voting on most Agendas. You have some pretty questionable Contributions.
@ Tallahassee Native…….. right NOW, voting against them, you would be voting in someone worse so, no.
If you Voted FOR the FSU stadium project then you ARE a “Dumb Little Bastard” and that’s not being Racist.
It would be wise to vote out any socialist AKA progressive liberal politician. They’ll ruin our city just like all the other cities that embrace this movement. So please vote against Matlow, Porter and Dozier when they are on the ballot.
Did Johnny Cockrain teach Maddox how to play the “racecard”? Jack Porter has a boyfriend. Democrats are the biggest threat to morality Christian’s face.