Primary Thought

"After all the precincts reported and it was apparent he had lost, Banjanin couldn't be reached for comment."

-- Pensacola News Journal, Sept. 6, 2006

The curious career of the feckless Tom Banjanin is over, one may hope, for good. Grover Robinson trounced him in yesterday's Republican Party primary for Escambia County Commissioner District No. 4, which includes Pensacola Beach.

One measure of how reviled he has become among beach voters can be gleaned from the lopsided results of Precinct 94, where Banjanin (105) didn't even manage to get a quarter of the total votes cast there (441). And that doesn't include any of the Democrats precluded from voting in the contest. There was little on their primary ballot to bring them out, but you can be sure no sober Democrat would have voted for the three-term county commissioner.

Another measure is that of 20 precincts in the district, Banjanin managed to attract a majority only in the hair-brained 110th, which is peopled largely by the same Pensacola Christian College crowd that thinks dinosaurs and people were placed on earth together 4,004 years ago.

Banjanin never had a coherent philosophy of public service beyond "vote for me" and "give me money." In twenty-four years as an office-holder -- three terms on the Pensacola city council, three more as a state legislator, and three as a county commisisoner -- he accomplished absolutely nothing of significance. He was bereft of ideas, ineffectual with colleagues, and wholly inept at even the most menial administrative duties. His word was worthless. His allegiances shifted with every new puff of wind, and his appointments to county boards, including the SRIA, were execrable.

What more is there to be said about a career politician whose epitaph will read "at least they didn't indict me?"