I have never run in a general election, and I’ve also never run in any election where I have truly examined my conscience, truly thought about why I am running, why I want to serve the people and make the concerted effort to win.
Well, there will be people that say, “didn’t you run in 2018, in that by election in Constituency 25?”.
I did, but that was only to save face for the OBA. I was never the approved candidate for the OBA in 2018 for Constituency 25 and I was made the candidate 12 hours before that infamous press conference.
So, what happened?
It is truly too long of a story, and I don’t want to play political tricks but the Constituents of 25 deserve the truth.
After the resignations of Jeff Baron and Grant Gibbons in 2018 there became two approved candidates for the OBA for those by elections. One of them being Scott Pearman and another prominent person that I will respectfully not name.
In the background the Leadership at the time and the Candidate Selection Committee, which I did not sit on, decided to consider the message it would send to the electorate if they ran a different kind of candidate in Constituency 22 and Scott Pearman in Constituency 25. This was argued by several people that it would break the chains of legacy and show the OBA was not the continuation of the UBP.
That clearly did not happen and the then Leader Jeanne Atherden called me the night before the candidate announcement to say that they didn’t reach an agreement with this prominent individual, and he took his name out of consideration to run. I told the Leader that the OBA would be finished if we weren’t rolling out two OBA Candidates tomorrow given:
We were the Party that triggered the by elections because two of members wanted to jump ship after just being elected not even a full year prior, and the PLP had already announced their candidates in Curtis Dickinson and Curtis Richardson.
I implored the Leader to find a new candidate; she called me back an hour later to say that she couldn’t secure someone and asked if I would run. I reluctantly obliged; given that I had a job offer with a local audit firm, I had to call them first thing that morning to confirm it was ok with them, and the speech that I gave on that day was written in 30 minutes just prior to that press conference.
I say all of this to say that I didn’t choose Constituency 25, fate choose it for me.
Just like many things that are forced on me in life it didn’t bode well in the beginning. But then there were beautiful moments on that campaign where people would share stories of my grandparents, my aunts and uncles and their impacts that they had on Warwick life and then I knew, why this opportunity was placed in front of me.
I knew I was going to lose as there were so many people who supported me that wanted Curtis Dickinson to become the Finance Minister and I agreed with them!
I tried to run in 2020 to represent Constituency 25 but the then Leader, Craig Cannonier, implied that I needed to bend the knee of sorts and ask for forgiveness after not supporting his unconstitutional [OBA Constitution] accession to the Party Leader in 2018.
Everyone who knows me and my character knows that would never happen!
In 2022 I submitted my interest again to the Candidate Selection Committee to run in Constituency 25. I was told no because we have a new fresh face politician to run in that Constituency and that I was better off running in Constituency 27, as the “demographics better suited me” more than the person who ran there in 2020.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I hate the consideration of race when it comes to a reason why someone runs in a constituency.
So why the consideration for me to run in Constituency 25?
I have made lifelong connections with the people of Warwick North East and I reminded myself that I made a pledge to them that I would never run anywhere else and I feel I need to defend them from two opportunists.
This will be Doug DeCouto’s third general election run:
Ran under the UBP in 2007 in Constituency 29
Ran under the OBA in 2020 in Constituency 27
Running under the OBA in 2025 in Constituency 25
If you run the pattern here, maybe in 2030 Doug will run in Constituency 23.
Then you have PLP’s Arianna Hodgson who has moved from Constituency 23 in 2020 to Constituency 25 in this election and who was probably trying to make a claim to run in the vacant seat of Constituency 5 which will now represented by Pastor Leroy Bean.
I’ll be honest I never understood the strategy behind constituency hoppers, aren’t you just showcasing that you don’t have the determination to work hard and devote yourself to one constituency?
All these individuals are portraying is the insatiable thirst for a “safe seat” so that they can fulfill their lifelong dream fame.
Do they have a burning desire to serve the people?
Or they will both act is if they do on the doorstep and in public just to play the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a big narcissistic photo of one these two in our Constituency as an intimidation tactic like a dog peeing on a tree to mark their territory.
No Party owns your vote, and they don’t deserve your unwavering loyalty.
Since my last article both the OBA and PLP have come out against me. Just ask yourself why?
The PLP and OBA have no donors left to run ads and other vitriol that you normally see during these types of elections. Now they must use their personal money [through their salaries from the public purse] for campaigning.
So this means the campaign is wholly personal to them and their public careers are on the line.
Ask Ariana:
What is the PLP plans and why haven’t they executed them in the last 8 years?
Why are PLP stalwarts like Wayne Caines and Derrick Burgess leaving the PLP in the dying hours of the campaign?
Do the PLP have 36 candidates and are they providing incentives to volunteers to fill vacant seats like the OBA?
Ask Doug:
If the OBA Platform has been out for 6 months as he said in a press conference on January 21st why isn’t anyone interested or excited about it outside of the diehard base?
Why are the OBA hemorrhaging women representatives? The OBA has lost three outstanding and empowering women in Susan Jackson, Tia Smith and Elizabeth Deacon.
What is the OBA’s plan to have women representatives when possibly at the final reveal of 36 candidates on January 31st less than 20% of the candidates will be women?
What incentives are the OBA giving and why has the OBA resorted to asking volunteers to stand for the Party given the recent dropouts and why didn’t they have a backup plan?
For the OBA and PLP silent members who are not coming to the defense of Bermudians and putting themselves forward as a viable option, I hope you examine your conscience in the coming days. This quote from Liz Cheney about the Trump affect is poignant to our election.
Liz Cheney [R-WY]: “I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
There will come a day when there is no OBA or PLP and history will remember those who held on to power with their last dying breath and dollar!
This is the final time I will be writing about the past or directly writing about any of the Party’s. When I officially announce my campaign this week I will only talk about the future, my passion for my Country, her people and the Community we will build together.
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