A quick search shows that since January 23rd, 2018, Tallahassee Democrat reporter Jeffrey Schweers has authored five stories about Dustin Daniels’ pursuit of public office.
In addition, Schweers authored the “Costa Rica Coincidence”, a story that many viewed as a negative portrayal of a family trip by one of Daniels’ opponent’s.
Daniels is the former Chief of Staff for Mayor Andrew Gillum and a current candidate for Tallahassee mayor.
This is the same Dustin Daniels that met with Tallahassee Democrat editor William Hatfield in 2016 and agreed to pay the Democrat $10,00o in city tax dollars for favorable coverage of a Gillum initiative.
In an election cycle that has seen more candidates filing for local office than in the past – six in the mayors race -why is the Tallahassee Democrat focusing so much press on Dustin Daniels?
Also, none of the stories mention any of Daniels’ questionable actions with the NGP VAN software controversy, his travels with city lobbyists and city vendors, and his use of free tickets for concerts and football games.
Where are the difficult questions about his actions as Gillum’s Chief of Staff?
The Tallahassee Democrat Stories
The reports on Daniels began in January 2018 before he was a candidate for any public office with a story about a possible candidacy.
Schweers wrote a story titled “Dustin Daniels launches website; is campaign announcement next?”
Then in April, when Daniels was still not a candidate, Schweers wrote a story titled, “Dustin Daniels, mayor’s chief of staff, launches campaign video.”
Then, just over a week later Schweers wrote an article titled “Dustin Daniels, Mayor Gillum’s chief of staff, to run for boss’s job.”
Then on June 5th Schweers wrote an article titled “Restaurant to share proceeds with Dustin Daniels for mayor’s race.”
Next, on June 11th, was an article by Schweers titled ” Costa Rica coincidence: Mayoral candidate John Dailey vacations at Kearney bungalow” two months after Leon County Commissioner John Dailey entered the mayor’s race.
This article did not mention Daniels, but rather, highlighted his opponent.
Coming on the heels of a report about a Costa Rica trip by Andrew Gillum involving lobbyists, city vendors and untraceable payments of cash, the title of the article alone reflected negatively on Dailey.
But the article went further and included a discussion of the ethically questionable details of the Gillum trip.
Hatfield defended the article, but one reader stated, “In this case the Costa Rican connection IS a coincidence, but the paper connecting it to the Gilliam (sic) story isn’t. It gets clicks.”
Then on June 21st Schweers wrote an article entitled “Dustin Daniels turns Children’s Services Council into campaign issue.”
The Tallahassee Democrat Gives a Lot of Positive Ink to Dustin Daniels added by Staff on
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Wow…is this A hoot…You people are bblast from the past… We will all be voting for Dustin Daniel…and all the other progressive candidates… You can take your loser candidates on with you..How about all the real live nazis u guys are running…Hell, even Ted Crews came out and saidvote for the demacracts….Big Blue Wave u cant STOP……
Snidely, hope you’re right about undisputable economic success making a difference to Tally voters. I prefer to remain optimistic, but liberals around the country are still in mourning that Hillary didn’t win in 2016 (picture our present economy if that happened!), and liberal Democrat voters in doggedly liberal areas of California and New York continue to vote for officials and policies that ensure their eventual economic collapse. Kind of reminds me of cartoons where the character saws off the limb in the tree that it’s sitting on.
Wait a minute – just saw this morning that a “Democratic Socialist” won the primary for the 14th congressional district of New York. A few “demands” made by this Socialist : “universal health care, a federal jobs guarantee and the abolition of ICE headlining her demands”.
See what I mean – when Socialists (a more accurate term for Democrat) are winning elections in liberal areas of the country, I have doubts that considerations of economics or even common sense are concerns in liberal voting habits. I guess New Yorkers think Venezuela is doing just great these days so why don’t we vote for Socialism too!
It’s sad and disgusting that such an obliviously flawed person has a very real shot at being elected in this little island of blue AKA Tallahassee. Tallahassee voters for the most part have shown themselves to be mindless drones.
Maybe Trump’s economic success will be noticed by these mindless drones and cause a mass change from their past self defecating, crime enabling, local usual suspect worshiping voting habits.
Wake Up Tallahassee!!!
Right on Steve! No conspiracy here, just fundamental unfairness.
Anyone surprised?
The gillum cartel has got to be removed from all that is Tallahassee. Let’s start by telling daniels we do not want him as Mayor…or even as a citizen.
The Democrat has been a longtime supporter of Gillum and has already committed journalistic malpractice with it’s “pay to play” arrangement for stories about him and the selective cropping of photos etc. And we all know the Democrat is a staunch champion of All Things Liberal. No doubt the Democrat wishes to continue with both of these perpetual practices and advocate for Daniels to keep the editorial and advertising cash flowing from him. And he’s a Gillum protege and a former employee of George Soros’ People For the American Way (which is the opposite of what it’s name implies) – so of course the Democrat wants him for mayor.
Gillum’s tenure as mayor has been marked by corruption, incompetence (glaring example; Hurricane Ermine lack of coherent response – even Gov. Scott had to berate Gillum into action), and spending a great deal of city-paid time working for George Soros’ People For the American Way (all of these Soros Liberal groups use fake “patriotic” names to hide their true purpose). Voting for Daniels or any COT insider will only continue the government corruption that Tallahassee has suffered for far too long.
Vote for outsiders and newcomers for mayor and commissioner positions – only by purging city hall of ALL longtime insiders can we begin to change the culture of corruption that flourishes there.
I hope the FBI does some of the work for us, but we citizens will have to vote against corruption in the voting booth if we want a better furure for this town.
Mike, totally agree! Last sentence in 3rd paragraph says it all!
Another story only in Steve’s mind…perhaps why he doesn’t win an election… conspiracies everywhere
Ad hominem attack because you can’t argue the issue.
And no mention of Daniels’ comment at the recent Capital Young Republicans candidate forum where he referred to current Tallahassee governmental structure as “Dukes of Hazzard”. Does he see “big ‘ol Confederate flags” while cutting campaign videos downtown?
Chief of Staff to Gillum-do we want more of the same? Who in their right mind would vote for anyone affiliated with Gillum? The mayor has a high paid staff of too many people, most of whom are not needed. The candidates for mayor who we shall choose to vote for need to let us know that their staff will be significantly smaller in size.