Headline Surfer® photo / DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Say it ain't so!
Volusia County Councilman Joshua J. Wagner and power attorney Ted Doran have gotten a divorce of sorts. Wagner left Doran's larger law firm earlier this month to partner up with veteran personal injury attorney Steven Vasilaros.
Wagner insists, however, that he and Doran remain friends.
Wagner and power attorney Ted Doran were seen more as political allies in the public eye than as law partners in Doran's multi-partner law firm.
Still, it comes as a shocker to some that Wagner left now, midway through his second four-year term on the council where he is now term-limited.
Wagner quietly left Ted Doran's law firm earlier this month and partnered up with veteran attorney Steven Vasilaros who had been on his own for several years. That is since Vasilaros' former partner, Michael Politis, left and partnered up with Mark Matovina to form Politis & Matovina.
Headline Surfer® heard through normal political circles that Wagner and Doran split up earlier this month so the internet newspaper asked Wagner straight out Saturday in a private Facebook message: "Who are you employed with Josh?"
Wagner wrote back Wednesday from the private Facebook messenger with the following: "Decided to do 100% personal injury with Steve Vasilaros. I'm still on great terms with Ted."
Headline Surfer® heard through normal political circles that Wagner and Doran split up earlier this month so the internet newspaper asked Wagner straight out Saturday in a private Facebook message: "Who are you employed with Josh?"
Wagner wrote back Wednesday from the private Facebook messenger with the following: "Decided to do 100% personal injury with Steve Vasilaros. I'm still on great terms with Ted."
Headline Surfer® had written privately to Doran on his Facebook page earlier in the day Saturday with the following: "I was told you and Wagner split. Is that true Ted?"
Doran responded within minutes, "Yes." Doran offered no further comment and the internet newspper dedcided noy to press it until it at least heard from Wagner.
Volusia County Chair Jason Davis said he was a little take aback at first, but after chewing on it awhile said the split was bound to happen at some point with all of the nasty politics emanating from from the county's Waverly Media investighation with private attorney Jon Kaney, Jr. as its investigator.
"This was a marriage bound to break up with ll the politics involved," Davis said, adding, "They have been through a lot politically and working together had to be tough dealing with the county politics of the Waverly Media invetigation. It's been like one giant soap opera."
Indeed, the political fallout from the 2012 elections and the Waverly Media issue has yet to subside.
Wagner and Doran had targets on their backs from one of Dorn's sworn enemies -- Charlie Lydecker, the designated No. 2 to influential insider J. Hyatt Brown of Brown & Brown Insurance, and an ally of Wagner's political rival on the dais, Councilman Doug Daniels of Ormond Beach.
Yet Wagner has had a loose alliance with another Daytona influential insider, Mori Hosseini.
In fact, Hosseini turned to Wagner when Headline Surfer® published a less-than-flattering political cartoon last year of Hosseini holding out a bag of money to the four Waverly Media investigation antagnosists on the County Council the intertnet newspaper dubbed the "Gang of Four" -- Daniels, Deb Denys of New Smyrna Beach, Pat Patterson of DeLand and Pat Northey of Deltona -- the internet newspaper ignored the request.
After all, Hosseini and Brown are board members with International Speedway Corp., parent company of Daytona International Speedway and a dozen other tracks in NASCAR. ISC is chaired by the ultimate influential Daytona insider or queen bee, Lesa France Kennedy.
The Speedway denied Headline Surfer® media credentials for the July 4th weekend rqces at DIS, including the Coke Zero 400 after the internet newspaper repoeted that the Speedway and its proxieshad invested heavily in th re-election campaigns of incumbents to get its hands on millions in taxpayer subsidies for its big projects.