The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Pat McCourt. Mr. McCourt is a candidate for a city council seat in Bonita Springs Florida. On the day of the filing deadline for the city council seat, Mr. McCourt filed an affidavit of undue burden saying he couldn't afford a verification fee for signatures on his petition. How much was this fee?

$4.50!

Mr. McCourt owns a Florida home. What's it value appraised at?

1.37 million dollars!

And its an undue burden??? I got a piggy bank here with twenty times that money. To be fair McCourt says he miscalculated the charge and said the elections supervisor didn't take cash. But if Mr. McCourt was so interested in serving the public which is detail oriented work, he'd see that he had the right filing fees before hand. Instead Mr. McCourt mocks the city of Bonita Springs by pleading poor mouth but in the end only makes a mockery of himself. I thought politicians were only supposed to do that after they get in office.

For pleading poor little rich boy, Pat McCourt is today's knucklehead of the day.

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He lives on Bonita Beach, in a house valued at nearly $1.4 million, but he's about $5 short in his race for public office.

That sums up the latest chapter of Pat McCourt's run for the District 3 City Council seat in Bonita Springs.

McCourt filed an affidavit of undue burden on the Friday deadline with the Lee County Supervisor of Elections Office, saying he cannot afford to pay the office to verify the signatures supporting candidacy.

The cost?

No more than $4.50.

The elections office charges 10 cents per signature. McCourt got 70, but needed only 40, equal to a percentage of registered voters in District 3.

Bernie Feliciano, a qualifying officer at the elections office, said the staff would probably verify 45, just to be safe.

That's $4.50.

"I couldn't afford it after paying my property taxes," joked McCourt, 65.

His home is assessed at $1.397 million, according to the Lee County Property Appraiser's Web site.

The truth is, McCourt said, he didn't have a campaign fund to pull the money from, and the elections office would not accept cash or a personal check.

Feliciano did not specify what happened or the method of payments available Friday afternoon, and could not be reached for further questions Friday evening.

Councilman Wayne Edsall, who filed to defend his District 1 seat, said he was told a bill would come in the mail.

In the end, McCourt still can pay the fee, Feliciano said, from money left over in his campaign fund, something McCourt said he plans to do. If McCourt has money left, after retrieving any personal campaign contributions, he must pay the elections office fee, or it is a misdemeanor, according to state law.

"Oh, absolutely I plan to pay it back," said McCourt, who already has beaten the deadline to file for Bonita's March 7 election. That's at noon next Friday.