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Local political consultants take on 'gargantuan task' in Ukraine

Tom Nolan, left, and Bruce Barcelo are Jacksonville-based political consultants who have worked in Ukraine and other former Soviet Union Republics to help ensure fair and transparent elections.
Corey Perrine
/
Florida Times-Union
Tom Nolan, left, and Bruce Barcelo are Jacksonville-based political consultants who have worked in Ukraine and other former Soviet Union Republics to help ensure fair and transparent elections.

The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine is personal for Jacksonville-based political consultants Tom Nolan and Bruce Barcelo.

It's more than places on a map and names in news stories. After years of working in the country as election observers and advisers, they have friends and colleagues there, people they consider family — and they've each wept as they watch TV accounts of the destruction and death toll.

"These people don't deserve this," Nolan said. "They didn't ask for it, they didn't want it. This is one man feeding his ego."

Read the rest of this story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.