60-year-old Indian-born citizen Tom Abraham, recently decided to run for City Council Seat 4 in Orange City, Florida. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports:

Hello. I’m ignorant. I want to be your city councilman.

Change and new ideas versus continuity and experience highlight the race for Orange City Council Seat 4, where newcomer Tom Abraham aims to oust two-time incumbent Don Sherrill.

“It is time for the residents of Orange City to go for a change,” Abraham said. “Don Sherrill has been a silent party participant, unless he is provoked by something like the salary increase. I don’t see him actively involved. If he is not involved, why give him four more years?”

Abraham, 60, was born in India and became a United States citizen in 1989. A nuclear medicine technologist, he has lived in Orange City for almost three years.

He got involved in city politics this year after the Orange City Mobile Home Park in which he lives was cited for various code violations.

The old saying, “all politics are local” rings true once again. When a person feels that their very home is threatened, why not run? Abraham’s opponent is incumbent Don Sherrill. Says Don:

“I think I have done the job expected of me as a city councilman,” he said. “The proof is that my peers selected me vice mayor with added responsibility. They have the faith in me to get the job done.”

I wouldn’t be so sure about that Don. Especially after they hear the following. From the Orlando Sentinel (thanks for the tip Arkaay):

A two-term City Council member has made disparaging remarks about the ethnicity of his Indian-born opponent in next week’s election.

During a candidate’s forum and again in an interview with an Orlando Sentinel staff writer, Seat 4 incumbent Don Sherrill criticized challenger Tom Abraham.

Sherrill derided Abraham’s accent at a political forum hosted and videotaped by the John Knox Village retirement community Oct. 12.

“I don’t know what to rebut because I don’t understand what he was saying, and I don’t mean that facetiously, I really don’t understand him,” Sherrill, who wears a hearing aid, told the group of about 40 people.

It gets worse. A lot worse.

According to the article, Abraham actually learned to speak English in India from the age of five. Let’s put that issue aside for the moment and move on to the bigger one.

In a later interview with the Sentinel, Sherrill said that residents would not vote for Abraham if they saw and heard him.

“I’m usually not prejudiced, but I don’t want an Indian in my government,” Sherrill said.

“As far as I know he could be a nice guy, but these kind of people get embedded over here… . You remember 9-11.”

Ouch. How do you really feel? Don’t worry guys, he is “usually not prejudiced.” I mean a guy named “Tom Abraham” could be an Islamic terrorist who is part of a sleeper cell, right? Don’s “peers” that he mentioned earlier quickly jumped ship:

“Wow, that’s harsh,” council member Jeff Allebach said. “I didn’t know there was a prerequisite for what an Orange City council member should look like.”

…another councilman, was taken aback. “I don’t feel that there should be any racial or ethnic slurs made to you or to anyone else, period,” he said.

Council member Chuck Abell, a Sherrill supporter, reacted with disbelief. Abell said he did not condone “that type of comment,” though he agreed Abraham is difficult to understand.

Abraham is actually being gracious about the whole thing:

“It is not a very intelligent comment,” said Abraham, 60, a political newcomer. “That is just part of his personality that I cannot correct.”

Hopefully the voters will correct it.