Few show up to press conference as Jacksonville Republicans concerned about ‘hit pieces’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (FLV) – Few people attended a press conference hosted by two Jacksonville city council Republican candidates as the two announced their concerns about “hit pieces.”

Republican candidate for Jacksonville City Council District 11 Norman Brewer and Republican candidate for Jacksonville City Council District 2 Mike Gay held a press conference claiming they are “embarrassed” by their own party for “misleading” voters with “hit pieces” against them.

Gay announced a public invitation for the press conference that was held in front of Jacksonville City Hall Tuesday. The two invited “over 90 members of the press and journalists” to attend. 

Florida’s Voice appears to have been the only media outlet to stay during the press conference. 

“We’re embarrassed at our own party and members of our own party that are actually perpetuating false statements, lies against other Republicans and other candidates and we’re here to say it’s just not right,” Brewer said.

Brewer said his and Gay’s “biggest concern” is the voters who are “getting false information.”

“They expect the voter who’s dummied down to sit here and believe it, ‘oh, well, Norm must be a liberal, Norm must be bankrolling Democrat extremists,’ without doing any homework, they take that on face value,” Brewer said. “And I’m telling you the fact of the matter is it’s a bold faced lie.”

Gay said he is concerned about “dark money” being funneled into other campaigns.

Florida’s Voice asked the candidates if they would say it’s hypocritical of them, on the topic of “dark money” and political action committees, since they have used political action committee money for their campaigns.

Brewer said he’s “okay with” local PAC money, but has a “problem with dark money coming out of Tallahassee.” He said he’d “love to see PACs go away.”

“I would love to see PACs go away, quite frankly, because that is the full transparency and I’d love to see a cap on local state and national races to where everything has to go in and you’re limited to $1,000 per person or per account,” Brewer said.

Florida’s Voice asked Brewer and Gay if they believe this is a real issue or if they are “upset” that their candidates tend to lose.

“No, that’s not it,” Gay said. “We’re concerned that we see other candidates that cannot financially afford to push back against the establishment, getting beat down.”