Dear fellow BUPAC members and associates,
this week an important letter from BUPAC President George Fox follows our featured speaker information.
Please join us Thursday
July 16, 2026 from 7:30 – 8:30 AM
as we welcome
Jennifer Nelson-Lastra, Candidate for Cape Coral City Council Dist. 4.
to our regular weekly meeting at the
Eastwood Country Club,
4600 Bruce Herd Lane
Fort Myers, FL 33901
$5.00 per person.
Doors open for complementary coffee/tea at 7:00 AM.
Ms. Nelson-Lastra has represented Dist. 4 from 2017-2022 and 2024-2026. If re-elected she intends to continue prioritizing parks and finding a funding solution that doesn’t include tax payer dollars. She would remain focused on balancing infrastructure with smart growth and development. Jennifer’s background includes 24 years with Goodwill Industries, Executive Director of the Captiva Erosion Prevention District, and she currently serves as the Executive Director of Dress for Success Southwest Florida.
Best regards,
Lane Jones
Secretary
Letter from President Fox
Hi everyone. This is George Fox.
BUPAC has never been perfect and it never will be perfect. No area displays that truth more than the voting for endorsements. In 16 years, I have yet to see everyone happy with the process. For years we would say we are planning in February for the votes in the summer…and it never happened. The time would come up and the scramble was on.
I do think it is important and relevant to recap the history of BUPAC. Starting in 1977 Lee County very much had a local government that was very involved in the zoning and permitting. If you recall the battle between Robert Troutman and the County Commission over his huge development plans along the back bay. Lee County prevailed in the US Supreme Court denying him the project. But many people felt that property rights were being unfairly restrained and other regulations blocked as well. So BUPAC was formed and worked for years to elect more business-friendly officials. Well… they won. Lee County now is flipped in its politics from 50 years ago.
Used to be, candidates vied to get in front of the BUPAC group and try to earn their endorsement…as it carried weight. Today, you don’t need BUPAC to get elected in this town. In short, BUPAC did such a good job of changing politics here that it sort of has obsoleted itself in terms of relevance.
Plus, we have had a substantial loss of many of the core group that for years carried it forward… mainly through aging and illness. But that also means that the old way of doing things has also passed. The Bylaws were set up in a day that no longer applies in most ways. Even in the heyday getting people to serve on committees was practically impossible.
When the discussion of changing our legal structure was bounced around a while back, I didn’t see any need to change. But now I do think leaving the format of being a Political Action Committee is preferable as it no longer applies to what we are, a speakers forum attended by interested citizens. I do think we should move to form a simple form entity that relieves us from reporting to the state (which is much more work and difficult than the county).
Endorsement voting can still be done, but I propose we adopt a system that is more of a catch all. So, the vote goes down by the members: If a candidate reaches over 67%, we state that he/she received a supermajority support from BUPAC members. If a candidate gets 50%, we report that they received a majority support from members. If a candidate is in a crowded race and receives the most votes, but not any type of majority we state he/she received the most votes from members. Our endorsement notice covers every race and just states the plain results.
This way for this past vote on the first we can give each candidate public mention and support the vote earned them. We can mention two candidates in the same race if needed. There needs to be a way that no one can get pissed off by the endorsement vote imperfections. I think this will go a long way to making it better.
Membership now stands at 35 people and we are blessed to have a home at Eastwood that welcomes and wants us there. Politics and public policy are now as interesting and important as they have ever been and I am asking everyone to put that spirit of civility and cordialness we have first. Growing our group and keeping it fun is much more important than any endorsement vote or announcement. Let’s focus on that.
I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.
George