Invasive Species Discovered in Key West Election

Many people in Key West know me as the Jeep rental guy, or the auto repair guy.  For years, I played by the rules: I stayed neutral, I focused on my customers and my employees, and I kept my head down. In business, you can't  afford to alienate half the town.

But I've learned that there are times when silence isn't neutrality — it's complicity.

My ties to Key West didn't start in 2014; they started in 2011, when I bought a small Jeep and RAM dealership in Michigan City, Indiana. Michigan City was on the verge of being dropped from the Key West based Superboat Race circuit. The loss would have been devastating for Michigan City, as their entire summer festival was built around the annual Superboat races.

The Michigan City Tourism board was looking for sponsors. I secured RAM Trucks as a sponsor, brokered a meeting between the Michigan City tourism board, the Blue Chip Casino, and Key West's own Superboat race promoters. The meeting was in Key West. The end result: a five-year contract that kept racing alive and saved the summer waterfront festival. I made many Key West friends during their annual visits to Michigan City. While everybody else was talking, I got busy getting things done. I got the right people in a room and hammered out a win-win deal. That's what I understood business to be all about.

But I've also seen the side of politics that doesn't build — it only takes.

I spent seven years, 1997 to 2004, locked in a brutal eminent domain battle in Illinois against a mayor who used his office to line his own pockets. I didn't have political connections; I had the truth. I fought a "quick-take" legislative bill sponsored by the state's most powerful politicians, and I won — not because I was a "political operative," but because I refused to let the big shots bully me or my neighbors.

That fight led me into the belly of the beast. I've been in the backrooms and the boardrooms of local, state, and even federal election campaigns. I've sat in rooms where self-styled "progressives" spoke with genuine, venomous hate for half the country — people who find joy only when their opponents are suffering. I have zero tolerance for people who build their careers on hatred, and I have even less patience for those who claim to be "victims" while they dismantle the communities they invaded.

I know what a predator looks like. I know what a political machine looks like.

I have seen some of the ugliest things this world has to offer. In 2004, with four children of our own to raise, my wife and I took in five children from a broken, drug-addicted home, including a blind girl and a boy shattered by trauma. Nieces and nephews from a half-brother I wasn't raised with. We didn't turn our backs. We fought for their health, education and future. Today, those children are thriving adults. We did the right thing, even when it was the hardest thing.

I'm telling you this because you deserve to know who is behind this site. I am not a political hack. I'm just a regular guy.

Having been involved in politics I know who Chris Massicotte is and who he isn't. He's not just a political opponent; he's an invasive species. Chris has over 20 years experience at the highest levels of liberal, progressive national and international political advertising campaigns. Chris remains a partner in the attack ad firm DSPolitical to this day. He is a man who thrives on the unhappiness of others, and he is methodically working to change Key West into his worldview, rather than let Key West be Key West.

I've survived the some of the worst this world has to offer, and I'm not going to let this island be dismantled by a man who hates half the people he's supposed to serve. I'm a regular guy who's seen the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly side of politics — and I'm here to make sure the ugly side doesn't take root here.