With less than a week before the first of potentially two rounds of voting (if no candidate captures 50+1%) on March 21st, citizens of Jacksonville deserve to know the following facts about GOP candidate Daniel Davis.
By Jacob Engels
Over the past several months, the Central Florida Post has been doing an investigative series on Jacksonville Chamber CEO Daniel Davis, one of the leading candidates to be the next Mayor of Jacksonville. Davis, who in his own words has stated that he has dreamed of becoming Mayor since he was twelve years old, has held elected office for decades, first as a City Councilman and then as a State Representative.
As the very definition of a career politician, whether you believe that is a pejorative or not, it’s what Daniel Davis is.
So what are the five facts every member of the voting public in Jacksonville should know before they cast their ballots in these final days?
DeSantis Wants To Repeal Pro-Illegal Immigrant Law Pushed By Daniel Davis
DeSantis Wants To Repeal Pro-Illegal Immigrant Law Pushed By Daniel Davis
Back in 2014, feckless Republicans in the Florida legislature approved a bill to allow illegal immigrants the privilege of in-state college tuition and Florida drivers licenses. If the past few years have taught Americans and Floridians anything about giving illegal immigrants access to our state and nation, then this law of appeasement should absolutely be revoked.
Carnage, drugs, depravity.
Wisely, Governor DeSantis wants to revoke and repeal these laws so that we do not encourage the influx of illegal immigrants and their children into the state of Florida.
But Daniel Davis, the CEO of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, who was in the Florida House of Representatives at the time of the bill’s passage, had no problem with giving illegal immigrants privileges that equated them to American citizens and other immigrants who respected our laws to earn their rights.
Mayoral Candidate & JaxChamber Still Silent Over LGBT Group’s “Penis Game”
Mayoral Candidate & JaxChamber Still Silent Over LGBT Group’s “Penis Game”
The Central Florida Post has obtained promotional material from Jasmyn stating that the JaxChamber was a sponsor of the non-profit, along with a host of other national, statewide, and local business organizations, non-profits, and family foundations.
JaxChamber is currently led by Daniel Davis, a leading Republican candidate for Mayor of Jacksonville. JaxChamber receives nearly $750,000 annually in grants or government funds to promote job creation or economic growth.
Davis has positioned himself as the hardline Christian, conservative, family man who deserves the right to lead the Bold City into the future. But why has he not commented publicly on his organization’s support of Jasmyn in the past, or more importantly, their efforts to sexualize children that were exposed by the Florida Standard last December?
How much money has Davis directed the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce to siphon off to Jasmyn during his tenure? What kind of oversight is in place within the JaxChamber under his leadership to actively review, monitor, and investigate recipients of said funds?
Daniel Davis Wanted Tax Increases
Davis also supported a near $1billion tax hike on Jacksonville residents with a 2021 gas tax referendum, which he called a “huge victory” for the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce he leads in an email on May 26th, 2021, which you can read below.
Daniel Davis Supported Cutting Police Budget
Career Politician Davis Wanted Tax Increases, Cut Police Budget, Dreamed of Becoming Mayor
Now the Central Florida Post has learned that Davis as a City Councilman in 2006 voted to cut $2m in funding for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, which is odd considering how he has claimed to be against defunding the police and has courted their support during his bid for Mayor of Jacksonville.
Voting to cut the police budget as a member of the Jacksonville City Council was not a one off fluke for Davis, who years later would go on to support the elimination of first responder pensions and benefits as the CEO of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce.
A release from 2014 from the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, which Davis led then as he does now, also stated how he wanted to reduce the annual COLA (cost of living adjustment) for retired police and firefighters.
Daniel Davis Dreamed of Becoming Mayor
Career Politician Davis Wanted Tax Increases, Cut Police Budget, Dreamed of Becoming Mayor
According to an interview with the Jacksonville Daily record in 2004, he stated that he “had known he would run for Mayor at the age of 12”.
Now, wanting to enter public service at an early age is not necessarily a death knell in his coffin as he runs for Mayor, after stints on the City Council and then in the Florida legislature. However, it does give residents an idea on how Davis has made a cottage industry of sorts for himself through being a career politician.
You see, he believes that he has been working towards being Mayor of Jacksonville his whole life, with residencies at the Jacksonville City Council and the Florida House of Representatives as political rest-stops of sorts as he traversed the highways of elected office in pursuit of his teenage dream of becoming Mayor of Jacksonville.
He’s even admitted since 2013 when he was quoted in the Jacksonville Business Journal as explaining that he “shakes hands for a living.”
Gladhanding is not an uncommon characteristic for politicians looking to hop from one political office to another, while earning himself a hefty payday of $500,000 annually from the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce in between advancing his personal political dreams.
But aren’t people like Davis the very reason people are disgusted with the American body politic as a whole? They seem to view the electorate as unimportant vessels that exist only to fulfill their vanity, to be used when they see fit and tossed aside once they have climbed the next rung of the political ladder.
With all of these facts assembled together, it’s very difficult for this journalist (who considers themselves a member and proponent of the America First movement), to ignore the fact that Daniel Davis is just more of the same ole crony career GOP politicians who talk a good game during election season, but stab us in the back when they obtain elected power.
