Mayoral Candidates Manfre, Norris Spar Over Profane Language

Palm Coast’s two mayoral candidates, Cornelia Manfre and Mike Norris, had a sharp dispute over the latter’s conduct during an interview on WNZF’s Free for All Friday show last week. The spat occurred in the opening minutes of the interview, which was hosted by David Ayres and Brian McMillan. Manfre dedicated her opening statement to accusing Norris of speaking inappropriately toward women, as depicted in an argument caught on camera between Norris and another candidate’s wife. Norris responded in his turn by providing background between himself and Alan Lowe, the candidate with whom he’d become embattled. Lowe was eliminated from the mayoral election in the August primary election, and the argument took place at a voting site where both men were campaigning. What Did Mike Norris Say? The video taken of Norris arguing with Lowe’s wife, Grit Lowe, began after an unfilmed confrontation in which Grit alleges Norris swung at her husband. She approached him at his tent at the Flagler County Public Library, where she filmed him as he was sitting in his lawn chair. “I know who your husband is, and he’s a piece of sh-t”, Norris says on camera. “Move along please.” He repeated the profane insult before saying that Alan had attacked him on Facebook, and then again asking Grit to leave his area. The video ends there. Manfre quoted this clip nearly exactly in the WNZF interview. “Is that how you speak to women?” she asked him. “Mr. Norris, do you speak to your wife like that? [Do you speak to] your mother like that?” She called into question Norris’ character as it pertains to his career in the military, and said she’d impose corporal punishment on her own Navy son if she heard him use such language toward a woman. “If I ever heard him speak like that to women I would chase him down with a big wooden spoon,” she continued. “Mr. Norris, your conduct is unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, and you should apologize to Mrs. Lowe.” Did Mike Norris Apologize? Norris declined to directly apologize to either of the Lowes, but did convey regret that the incident occurred. McMillan pressed Norris to say plainly whether he’d apologize, prompting the candidate to show frustration with the incident as a whole rather than with himself. “I regret that it happened,” he said. “I regret that she approached me. Because she shouldn’t have done it. If her husband had a problem with what I said, he could’ve easily walked over.” McMillan again pressed Norris, asking if he’d repeat his response if he got to redo the situation. Again, he stopped short of placing blame on his word choice. “If I had to do it again I would’ve left earlier because I was already in the lead. And they knew it. And they were scared.” He later conceded that he regretted his word choice and that it wasn’t how he believed in speaking to women. The Conduct of a Mayor One of the primary duties of Palm Coast’s mayor is to maintain decorum during City Council meetings, both among the Council members and the public who often speak with high emotions. This necessitates a certain stoicism, one which the two recent mayors – David Alfin and Milissa Holland – have maintained with scarce exception. Norris contended later in the interview that the way he would lead in meetings would be measured, but that he maintains the need to stick up for himself in cases of personal attack. “I’ve been disrespected and gone through a lot of things in my life in the military, and I’ve seen the worst in humanity unlike [Cornelia],” he said. “For you to attack me personally when you’re completely uncapable of running this city, you don’t have the leadership ability to run this cityto levy personal attacks on me I think is very low-brow, and I really don’t have anything else to say to you.” This return-fire prompted Manfre to confront her opponent directly once again. “I’m sorry you feel that way Mr. Norris but I believe 40 years of business experience, and you do not know the things that I have gone through,” she said. “Personal tragedies, illnessesyou don’t know me. To judge me-“ Norris then cut her off. “And apparently you don’t know me if you levy personal attacks on me concerning two unelectable and possibly the worst politicians in the history of Flagler County.” With that statement Norris referred to Lowe and Ed Danko, the outgoing Vice Mayor of Palm Coast and a personal friend of Lowe’s.