Alan Lowe, Palm Coast Mayor Candidate: The Live Interview

July 1, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 32 Comments

Alan Lowe, left, with Ed Danko, his campaign manager-adviser, who has said "I need Lowe" on the council, along with Councilman Victor Barbosa, who has also been helping Lowe's campaign. Lowe did not participate in the Live Interview, apparently on Danko's advice: Danko told the Observer Lowe would not participate in that interview since he was the front-runner, and presumably didn't need to. (© FlaglerLive) — Alan Lowe, left, with Ed Danko, his campaign manager-adviser, who has said “I need Lowe” on the council, along with Councilman Victor Barbosa, who has also been helping Lowe’s campaign. Lowe did not participate in the Live Interview, apparently on Danko’s advice: Danko told the Observer Lowe would not participate in that interview since he was the front-runner, and presumably didn’t need to. (© FlaglerLive)

Alan Lowe, 60, is one of six candidates in the July 27 special election for Palm Coast mayor. The candidates who filed to run are: David Alfin, Kathy Austrino, Carol Bacha, Doug Courtney, Lowe and Cornelia Manfre.

Lowe is the only candidate who refused to participate in the Live Interview. Lowe had initially said he would participate. He then did not answer a follow-up email to confirm. He was again invited to participate after FlaglerLive re-extended the invitation through Ed Danko, his campaign manager (or campaign adviser, as Lowe now refers to him, though Lowe appears to do little without Danko’s direction, making it unclear to what extent he is his own voice). Lowe never responded. He also refused the Observer interview. (“We’re the front runner; why would we want to participate?” Danko reportedly told the Observer publisher, after Lowe deferred the question to Danko.)

Until last year’s election, when he was himself on the ballot, Lowe had also not registered or voted in elections.

When he ran for mayor last year, Lowe stole the FlaglerLive questions–which are copyrighted–and answered them on his own site, evading the follow-up questions. He also stole FlaglerLive-owned photography, and kept using the stolen intellectual property despite requests to remove it from his sites. And he disseminated false information, proven false months before he disseminated it about his opponent, during that election campaign.

FlaglerLive submitted identical questions to all candidates, with the understanding that additional questions might be tailored to candidates individually. Specific questions to Lowe would have asked him whether he intends to show the same contempt for the press as a mayor that he is showing as a candidate, and whether–considering that he still wears a Trump campaign button at campaign functions–he considers the election of Joe Biden illegitimate, as most Trump supporters do, raising questions about his respect for the electoral process, the legal rulings of some 60 courts and judges, and constitutional government, which ultimately controls Council functions beyond the city Charter. He has not answered those questions throughout his current campaign.

When he was in his 30s–a full adult, well-past the vagaries of adolescence–he had declared himself a “sovereign citizen,” renouncing the U.S. Constitution and declaring himself answerable only to God. He claims it was just a phase, and that he abandoned those convictions. His conduct in this election raises further questions about the claim that he’s moved on as unequivocally as he claims. Lowe has allied himself to Danko and to Victor Barbosa, the Palm Coast councilman who took part in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally in Washington, that degraded into an attack on the U.S. Congress. The three would form a majority voting bloc on the council.

It’s ultimately up to the reader to judge the quality and sincerity of a candidate’s answers, whether the candidate answers them or not.

The Questions in Summary: Quick Links

Basics
Comparison with previous mayors
Coucil dynamics
Mayoral power
Goals
Continuity or change
Commercial vehicles
Next city manager
Development
Taxes
Policing
LGBTQ
Character
Rap sheet

The Basics: Alan Lowe

Place and Date of Birth: May 5, 1961.
Current job: Alan Lowe did not disclose it.
Party Affiliation: Republican.
Financial Disclosures: Alan Lowe did not disclose it.
Resume: Alan Lowe did not disclose it.
Website: Alan Lowe did not disclose it.

The 2021 Special Election for Palm Coast Mayor

The Live Interviews:

The Background:

1. Palm Coast has had just three mayors, the last two, Jon Netts and Milissa Holland, accounting for 14 of the city’s 21-year history. We assume that with your interest in being mayor, you are familiar with Netts’s and Holland’s years as mayor and their legacy. Tell us how you would compare yourself to them, and whether you see your mayorship as a break from that legacy or as a continuation of it, understanding of course that you’re your own person. Put another way: would Palm Coast residents see your mayoral style in a recognizable light, or would they discover in you someone quite different—radically different?—from your predecessors?

Alan Lowe did not answer the question.

How the others answered:
David Alfin | Kathy Austrino | Carol Bacha | Doug Courtney | Cornelia Manfre

2. Of Flagler County’s five major government boards (the cities, the county and the school board) the Palm Coast City Council right now is the most splintered, the most unpredictable—not in a constructive way, but a loose-cannon sort of way—and the most prone to doubletakes, to put it gently. First, give us your impression of council dynamics. Second, tell us how you as mayor intend to bring consensus, and whether your aim is to work primarily toward a majority of three, or toward the consensus of the entire board.