ROBERT M. NEELD, Democrat
Candidate for U.S. Congress

"On June 6, Jeff Lytle wrote the following column in the Naples Daily News. Pay attention to what he says in the second item and then ask yourself: what could he have possibly been thinking?"

Click here to read Jeff Lytle's article.

"'I've tried on several occasions to ask the Naples Daily News to print the following article in rebuttal to the claims made in the commentary that you just read.

As of July 1, however, the paper hasn't been responsive.

So here's the deal: if the paper won't do its job in keeping the community informed, I will.

Herewith is my response to Mr. Lytle."

By Robert M. Neeld

I’d like to comment on Jeff Lytle’s June 6 endorsement of a one party system of government in general, and on his premature obituary concerning my campaign in particular.

As he has overlooked the strength of the Democratic Party locally, I’ll overlook his patronizing comments about me personally. I would, however, point out that I live and work in Cape Coral, not Fort Myers.

Mr. Lytle’s contention that I am “effectively disenfranchising” Democrats and Nonaffiliated Voters from participating in the Republican Primary in late August is pure bunk. “What a shame,” Mr. Lytle laments. “What a wasted opportunity for as many voters in Southwest Florida to pick our First House member of the post-Porter Goss era.”

In my opinion, the real shame is that a Republican would have been our next Congressman without a spirited and thoughtful campaign against a Democratic Party opponent. From the voter’s point of view, that would have been the wasted opportunity.

If there is a scintilla of truth in Mr. Lytle’s column, here it is: I spoiled a GOP Back Room deal designed to reserve Porter Goss’s seat in Washington for one of their own.

To make the GOP Back Room deal work, however, Democrats and candidates from the minor parties had to sit this race out. That way, Republican power brokers, moneymen and Special Interests – as they have already done -- line up and promote their respective GOP candidates. The matter of your next Congressman would then be settled in the August Primary by powerbrokers that made their deals months ago.

And there is an artifice: Republicans are assured that one of their own goes to Washington while their spin-doctors and sock puppets make Democrats and Nonaffiliated Voters feel that they are participating in the process!

Nearly 40,000 Democrats in Collier County, joined by 116,000 Democrats in Lee and Charlotte Counties, are telling the GOP that there will be no Back Room deal in this Congressional Race. I won’t include Nonaffiliated voters or disgruntled Republicans in my count for now.

Republicans can exercise their franchise on August 31 so that I will have a worthy opponent on the November 2 ballot.

As that Democrat Party opponent, I fully realize that the GOP will do everything possible to hold onto this particular seat in Congress. GOP candidates have raised an obscene amount of money for their campaigns and it does my heart good to see that they’re spending a lot of it by fighting among themselves.

My job is to build momentum over the next 120 days and fight my eventual GOP opponent every step along the way.

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