Key West candidate for mayor takes call from God during debate

KEY WEST, Fla. — A perennial candidate for mayor of Key West took a phone call from God during a recent debate.

“Hello? What? God?” Sloan Bashinsky said into his cellphone during Monday night’s debate for city commission and mayoral candidates.

According to a report in the Miami Herald, Bashinsky then talked about cuts to nonprofit funding and told God he thinks city officials have lost their minds.

Bashinsky has a law degree from Vanderbilt University and used to be among Key West’s homeless. He says God told him to seek office.

Weird is relative in Key West, where another perennial candidate, the late barkeep and ship captain Tony Tarracino, eventually won the mayor’s office after saying “all you need in this life is a tremendous sex drive and a great ego.”