On February 11, 2016, Sheriff David Morgan posted a political campaign video on YouTube. In the final minutes, from 28:45 to 29:15, Sir David explains why he is seeking in a third term, despite the fact that he supposedly believes in term limits and that people serving a third term usually lose touch with reality.

On February 4, 2010, Sheriff Morgan told a community group, “…monopoly money, you lose touch with reality if you are spending other people’s money; so that’s why I’m a big advocate of term limits, of term limits. I would love to do a second term as the Sheriff of Escambia County. But let me make this statement to this group as I make to a lot of these groups. I believe in term limits from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. If I go stupid and run for a third term, do not vote for me; do not vote for me because you need to cycle people out of these positions. I need to go back to the business world and understand what it is to balance a checkbook and make payroll, put children through college…”

Here is Sheriff Morgan’s exact quote taken from his February 11, 2016 political advertisement:

“I will tell you now in running for this third term it was a difficult decision for me to make. And I made that decision because of you; because of you. Because I see those in our community who want to take us backwards and not forwards. And some of the candidates that are coming up to run now. And I encourage you to check out their backgrounds; to check out their backgrounds. And when you do, you are going to find out why David Morgan changed his opinion and understood that it was his duty to run for another term.”

COMMENT:

The assertion by the Sheriff that he is running for a third term because of the “candidates that are coming up to run now” suggests that Sheriff Morgan has already lost contact with reality.

According to indisputable proof from the Escambia County’s Supervisor of Elections, Sheriff Morgan filed to run for a third term on January 13, 2014.

That was 388 days before Doug Baldwin, Sr. filed to run for Sheriff. And it was 567 days before former Sheriff Ron McNesby filed to run for the office.

Are we to believe that Sheriff Morgan could look into the future and see 388 and 567 days ahead regarding the character and qualifications of candidates who had not filed to run for Sheriff? Is Sir David a soothsayer? A clairvoyant? A fortune teller? If he can see that far ahead regarding his political opponents, why does he not stop crime like in the Minority Report?

And when Sheriff Morgan smears the other candidates, what exactly does he have in mind? What is in their backgrounds?

Doug Baldwin, Sr. is a decorated former Pensacola Police Department officer with assignments in Special Weapons and Tactics, Criminal Investigations, Special Operations, Narcotics Unit, and Department of Homeland Security Protection Liaison. John Johnson is a decorated former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent.

Sheriff Morgan, on the other hand, has zero first-hand experience working as a criminal investigator, or a narcotics investigator, Special Weapons and Tactics, or Special Operations. When you look into his professional background before he became Sheriff, he rode a desk in the rear echelon.

So why is Sheriff Morgan running for an unprecedented third term as Sheriff of Escambia County? Maybe the answer is that Sheriff Morgan decided to break his pledge not to run for a third term because: (a) he can and/or (b) because the local powers that put him into office in 2009 are getting a good return on their investment and want to keep him around. In other words, is it possible that Sheriff Morgan has now become the political machine he decried in when he ran in 2008?

I agree that Doug Baldwin and John Johnson have better credentials to be Sheriff. I like them both. However, when asked to look at issues that are present now, like the corruption of the position now. Doug Baldwin and John Johnson both said “I can’t do anything until I’m elected.” THAT IS A COPE OUT.

The next Sheriff needs to go to the people and ask them what they need. People like Cindy Cutting and Chris Rogers who have teenage kids who are forever changed by Sheriff Morgan’s status quo.

Doug Baldwin asked me,

” What do you want from me. I have made it perfectly clear that I am against corruption in our community at any level. What else is there to say. I also said that I support your advocacy. So what is it you want me to do. I can’t do anything until I get in office and hold those accountable to the wrongs to this community.what do you want me to do?”

I believe you, as a representative or potential representative of Escambia people, go to the people and create a strong voice against the machine. Neither are willing to do so.

I also asked each of them to put a signature on a anti-corruption pledge. A symbolic measure to be sure, neither would put their John Hancock on a pledge to end corruption within their community. That is striking. Both were almost insulted by the challenge but considering the current state of Escambia County, it is a very reasonable request. I vowed through all the support I could muster to either of them should they sign the dcoument seen below. Both declined.