The first round of Tampa City races had some surprises and added some new faces to the City Council.
Mayor Iorio's race was all but assured. It was no surprise that she received so many votes. Many residents question her on some issues, but her sincerity and honesty made for an easy re-election. With a commitment to addressing the mass transit issues of Tampa and the completion of the Riverwalk project and adjacent museums, she beamed at the idea of a second term as Mayor. It helps when you receive almost 80% of the vote too.
The other city council races were not so clear:
District 1 - the Six candidates in this citywide race made for a lot activity. Incumbent Gwen Miller received 27% of the vote to Joe Redner's 23% with the next candidate at only 15%. The Tampa Tribune continually identifies Joe Redner as a strip club owner - neglecting to mention all of his other businesses and real estate investments. While the newspapers impact could be signficant, it appears less so after the last place finish of St. Pete Times and Tribune endorsed Randy Baron in this race. Denise Chavez, Julie Jenkins, and Rick Barcena ran good campaigns, but they were just diluted down with the number of candidates. Conventional political wisdom says the incumbent gets all their votes in the first round, but with a controversial candidate like Joe Redner, anything is possible.
District 2 - the biggest upset of the evening came here. Shawn Harrison raised over $200,000 as he moved from a single district seat to a citywide seat in anticipation of a campaign for Mayor in 4 years. He made several key mistakes: he didn't take his opponent seriously, he didn't spend all the money, and he failed to communicate any message as to why he should be sent back to city council. Mary Mulhern had spirited supporters and a dedicated candidate with a defined message. She spent her smaller amount of campaign dollars more effectively and won by a narrow margin. Someone told us that Shawn Harrison was invited to a campaign event south of Gandy during the last week and acknowledged he had never been there before. Hard to run a citywide campaign when you haven't visited a fast developing part of the city.
District 3 - Linda Saul-Sena won with no opposition. Next stop Mayor ?
District 4 - Money and partisanism marked this South Tampa single district campaign. John Dingfelder was challenged in the money raising side and he rose to
the occasion as challenger Julie Brown exceeded $100,000 very quickly. The charges of money and developer interests arose on both sides. While charges of vote buying flew from both, in the last week we kept hearing concerns expressed about the outside influences - the Republican party and out of town political committees - as being of big concern to voters. The third candidate Joseph Citro lead a downtown to earth campaign of reason that just failed to catch on against the big dollars of the other two candidates. The bottom line was if you want to get an incumbent out you have to give people a good reason, and in this case that argument just wasn't really conveyed to the voters.
District 5 - Thomas Scott did not make this look tough. As a former County Commissioner with his name recently on the ballot, he face a spirited candidate with little money Tradee Judge and an appointed incumbent Frank Reddick that never seemed to get a campaign in gear.
District 6 - If you met Lisa Tamargo, you had to like her, but with the campaign experience, issues experience, money and depth of neighborhood connections provided by Charlie Miranda, the results of this campaign was inevitable. We do hope we haven't seen the last of Lisa being involved in city issues.
District 7 - Did this campaign really happen ? Three candidates in the New Tampa area that offered three different types of campaigns. Joseph Caetano will face Frank Margarella in a runoff. Both candidates are well known in the district, but most recently, Caetano as a voice of New Tampa independence and Margarella as a campaign spender at golf clubs and private events. The surprise was Charlie Perkins that ran a very close third as a candidate that attended no forums, but did campaign in the neighborhoods.
So in summary, watch for a runoff election on Tuesday, March 27.
We will hold another online forum on Tuesday March 13, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. with District 7 candidates Joseph Caetano and Frank Margarella. We hope to bring you another online forum with the remaining two candidates very soon.
Check out the TAMPA CITY ELECTIONS BULLETIN BOARD FOR 2007 here:
DEMOCRATS WIN BIG IN TAMPA
We delayed sending our E-News so that we could report great news out of the Tampa City elections yesterday. Mayor Pam Iorio was re-elected by an overwhelming margin (80 percent!). Democrats John Dingfelder, Mary Mulhern, Tom Scott and Charlie Miranda all won their City Council races. Incumbent Gwen Miller was the leading vote-getter in the District #1 race, which now heads to a run-off. Republicans tried to take the Council by pouring tons of money into these races, but hard-working Tampa Democrats prevailed, guaranteeing a 6-1 majority. These victories, in the pivotal I-4 corridor, are a huge boost for Florida Democrats.
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