by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Though word on the street is that Mike Weinstein might make a run for the supervisor of elections job, he says the possibility is quite slim.
“If we have a number of candidates that can do the job well, if that is the case, I am not interested,” Weinstein said Wednesday after speaking at the Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association luncheon.
Weinstein said he would only consider running for the position if he thought the other candidates we’re not qualified to do the job properly.
“It is important enough in my mind that I would do it,” he said. It is important that the (elections) office becomes all that it can be and should become. Elections are important and the country and the community are realizing that more than ever.”
Weinstein cited his current job as the main reason he is not planning to run for the position. He said his position as president of Take Stock in Children, an organization that helps children obtain college educations, is very important in his life and would be difficult to give up.
As far as who should fill the position, Weinstein said he has been very pleased with Interim Supervisor Bill Scheu’s work.
“I think Bill Scheu has done a great job,” said Weinstein. “I am proud of him. I would like to see him stay. We need to continue to work and improve on the initiatives he brought.”
Scheu, however, has previously said that he has no intentions to run for the position.
Weinstein was speaking at the JWLA luncheon about the upcoming Super Bowl and his involvement with the planning process for the game. He said planning has been more extensive than imaginable due to the widespread regional impact the event will have on Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.
“Jacksonville will not be the same after the Super Bowl,” he said.
Weinstein talked to the group about the many different intricacies and hurdles local Super Bowl committees have faced. For example, he said the application to get the Super Bowl to Jacksonville was “55 pages long with an 800-page addendum.”
He also addressed the multiple transportation and lodging concerns the host committee had from the beginning. Weinstein said bringing the cruise ships in as floating hotels was one of the hardest parts, but greatest aspects, of the process.
“Nobody has done anything like this before,” he said. “The NFL had never seen this before.”