According to Matt Sperling: “Driving after drinking is legal in Sarasota.”
Keep scrolling to explore a surprising string of emails that show Matt Sperling (candidate for Sarasota City Commission) defending his right to drive after drinking.
As part of our efforts to keep you up to date on everything Sarasota, we set out to interview all of the candidates for the upcoming city elections in March. It’s a crowded race with 8 candidates who are all vying for 2 at-large seats on the Sarasota City Commission.
Click here to learn more about the candidates for city commission
All of the interviews went smoothly until the last one. Matt Sperling showed up to our studio smelling of alcohol, started acting belligerent, and then refused to shake my hand.
After I called him out on it, he walked out of our studio before the interview even began. So instead of a full candidate interview, we released the video below. We also decided to rescind his invitation to our upcoming town hall event.
That decision led to a number of interesting messages from Matt across a few different social platforms, and then to the string of emails you see below.
They are listed in chronological order, in their entirety and unedited, although I did blur out my email address. As a candidate, his email address is public record so I felt no need to do the same for his.
Read them for yourself and share your thoughts with us on Facebook or Instagram.
A candidate interview is a prerequisite for attendance at our town hall event. So it’s real simple, no interview, no invite. And since I am the only person doing these interviews, then I guess that leaves Sperling out.
Well… that escalated quickly.
Like I said before. This is my project, and these are my interviews. I have been more than fair with the other candidates, and have been nothing but respectful throughout this entire process.
It actually seems like there is some depth to this guy after all, which makes this whole conversation even more peculiar…
But make sure you read this one clearly. Right there in the second line, between the terrible punctuation.
“Driving after drinking is legal in Sarasota.”
And while he may technically be right, I am not sure this is something to be bragging about, or defending in an email. Especially while running for public office.
Maybe a lawyer can answer this in the comments, but I was under the impression there was a distinction between Driving Under the Influence (DUI), and Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). Am I wrong?
If your argument starts to fall apart, just start screaming and calling people names. That always works… Right?
I get what he is saying here, but this is not what we are talking about. The incident that started all of this was at 2:45 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. Not to mention that a drink or two with a meal doesn’t typically leave you smelling like Bourbon Street after Mardi Gras.
Mr. Sperling wisely heeds my advice and backs down. Unfortunately for him, Hillary Clinton does not run my email servers.
Why We Picked Kevin Cooper to Moderate Our Candidate Forum 