Election day is nigh; are you ready?

Happy Halloween — this year we’re going as clean water in Florida, no one will recognize us!

ELECTION DAY: Tuesday, Nov. 5

EARLY VOTING: Going on now, check your local Supervisor of Elections website for details.

WHO HAS VOTEWATER ENDORSED?: We have endorsed four candidates in general-election races this cycle: In the race for U.S. Senate, VoteWater endorses Debbie Mucarsel-Powell; in the race for the Congressional District 21 seat, VoteWater endorses Brian Mast; in the Miami-Dade County Commission District 7 race, VoteWater endorses Cindy Lerner; and in the Islamorada Village Council Seat 2 race, VoteWater endorses Steve Friedman.

WHAT ABOUT THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ON THE BALLOT?: We take no official position on the six proposed amendments to Florida’s Constitution on this year’s ballot. However, we have significant misgivings about Amendment 2, which seeks to establish a state Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish; those concerns are best articulated in this column by Blair Wickstrom, Florida Sportsman Senior Editor and President of the VoteWater Board of Directors, and in this piece by our friends at Friends of the Everglades.

HOW BIG A ROLE HAS ‘DIRTY MONEY’ PLAYED IN THIS ELECTION?: Since Sept. 1, the sugar industry has spent more than $2.5 million on political giving at the state level alone; Florida’s biggest utilities (NextEra, Duke Energy and TECO) have collectively spent more than $3 million on political giving. Some of the biggest “polluter PACs” — the Florida Chamber of Commerce PAC and its affiliates, the Voice of Florida Business PAC and the Associated Industries of Florida PAC and its affiliates — have collectively given some $1.7 million. All this in just two months.

THE BOTTOM LINE: In a year dominated by concerns about abortion and other cultural issues, clean water was not a major campaign theme. That means, most likely, more of the same dynamic we’ve seen in recent years: the state will throw money at solutions like septic-to-sewer and Everglades restoration (good!) while legislators continue to introduce new bills that will harm our waters (bad!). Dirty money will keep getting what it wants unless we push back — as we must, for the next water-related crisis in Florida is always just around the corner.

DEEP DIVE: What's the connection between hurricanes and harmful algal blooms?

Speaking of water crises: You might have seen news of the nascent red tide lurking off Florida’s west coast near Pinellas, Hillsborough, Sarasota and Manatee counties. That’s nothing unusual in the wake of hurricanes; several of Florida’s recent red tide “events” were supercharged by hurricanes, which don’t cause blooms, but can fuel them.

In our latest “Deep Dive” we take a look at how hurricanes can supercharge both red tide and blue-green algae; it’s not that we have a hurricane problem, we have a nutrient problem. And until that problem is addressed, expect more HABs to follow the hurricanes.

How much dirty money did your local county commissioners get?

Thanks to Benji Studt for his recent shout-out regarding our Dirty Money Project and the campaign finance data we’ve amassed on county commissioners in St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Collier and Lee counties.

We totally agree with Benji that it’s important to know who’s bankrolling your local officials; it helps explain why things like paving over land that was supposed to be preserved is happening in your community. So check out the Dirty Money Project, get informed, get angry — and then take action.