Margate Mayor Campaigns for Opponent by: Margatenews.net

Margate Mayor Campaigns for Opponent

October 14, 2014 / By Mitchell Pellecchia

At least once every municipal election in Margate a candidate or two gets caught doing something extraordinary. Tuesday, Margate Mayor, Le Peerman, is seen campaigning for...

...her opponent? __________________________________________________________________________________ Most would consider it unusual behavior for a candidate. Putting campaign signs on lawns that aren’t theirs, but rather their rivals. On Tuesday around noon Peerman was seen doing just that on a lawn on 70th Way.

One of her opponents, Anthony Caggiano, said he saw the Mayor plant an Eddie DeCristofaro sign on the lawn after getting permission from the homeowner. DeCristofaro is running against Peerman and Caggiano for city commission seat 3 on November 4th. Early voting begins on October 20th. When asked why, Peerman told MargateNews.net that it “only seems fair.” According to the Mayor, Caggiano did not tell the homeowner that he was running against somebody [Peerman] the homeowner already supported. Additionally, Caggiano had two signs on the lawn when Peerman said he had permission from the homeowner for only one. As a result, she removed one of her own signs (which she said she did have permission) and replaced it with a DeCristofaro sign. “The people at that house have supported me since 2004 and I have not gone and asked them if you told them who you were running against as I just think it is stupid and ignorant to have a sign on the same yard as the person who is running against you, but I have not wanted to bring the property owners into the stupid game that is played with doing that. The only time your sign has been touched is when it has been moved to where my sign was in the first place,” she told Caggiano in an email. Caggiano told Peerman that opposing candidate signs are nothing new on the corner and that commission candidates Phil Hylander and Brian Donahue both had signs on the corner when running against each other in the August election. "Also, I have not and will not touch any of your signs," Caggiano responded. "I was raised better than that. But I have found my signs in the street, bent over, broken and most often just gone. That raises big questions for me." The Mayor's response to that: "It was ignorant and stupid when Phil put his there after Brian. You seem to have many questions hopefully you will get the correct answers," she stated. Peerman accused Caggiano of misleading the Sun-sentinel Board at a recent interview with the three candidates. He referenced Peerman for being in office six years - not three, a deliberate strategy, she said, to make it seem as though she has been in office longer than she actually has. “Maybe you should ask him if he has been telling residents that I have been on for six years,” she said in an email to MargateNews.net. Caggiano admits to the Editorial Board faux pas, saying it was corrected immediately by Peerman on the spot. He said he thought Peerman’s first term on the dais - when she replaced a deceased Arthur Bross, was longer than it was before her next election. DeCristofaro said he had no comment for MargateNews.net. It was confirmed, however, that Peerman retrieved the signs from DeCristofaro on the premise that she was helping the candidate get the one up to Caggiano by making the race fairer. Now, with a DeCristofaro sign on the corner alongside her's and Caggiano's, it’s a much fairer city commission race, emphasized Peerman. “The property owners are nice people and they do not need to get CRA [sic] about signs. Now there are 3 and they can be left alone,” she stated.