I often rely on the Tampa Bay Times to provide useful information on local political elections. Their coverage is usually pretty good. But they don’t always cover every election or every candidate. And since I like to do my own research, I figured I’d start blogging about the elections.
Here’s what I’ve found on the Mayoral candidates. The election is March 5th, 2019.
Jane Castor
Campaign website
Job History:
Former Chief of Police of Tampa.
Unique Features:
Castor has been heavily criticized for a policing policy implemented while she was Chief of Police of stopping people on bicycles, as a disproportionate percentage of those people were black.
Tampa Bay Times officially endorsed Jane Castor for Mayor.
Harry Cohen
Campaign website
Job History:
Lawyer turned public servant. Worked as Chief Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County from 2005-2011. Elected to Tampa City Council in 2011 and re-elected in 2015.
Unique Features:
The only candidate to put together a fairly detailed transportation plan for Tampa.
Dick “Dickie” Greco
Campaign website
Job History:
Unique Features:
Dickie Greco is the latest addition to the candidate pool, announcing his candidacy in early January. He is also the son of Dick Greco, who was mayor of Tampa multiple times.
Party Affiliation:
Democrat
Michael Anthony Hazard
Campaign website; Twitter;
Job History:
He’s a Tampa native. His family operates an online human resources and office supply company.
Unique Features:
Hazard is a convicted felon (for bad checks and forgery) who voted illegally in Florida twice (though, this was before the passage of Constitutional Amendment 4 in 2018 that restored the voting rights of felons, which made him eligible to run for Mayor).
Party Affiliation:
Democrat
LaVaughn King
Campaign website
Job History:
Unique Features:
King appears to be the only candidate who is flaunting his religiosity.
Topher Morrison
Campaign website
Job History:
Unique Features:
David Straz
Campaign website
Job History:
Comes from a wealthy family. His mother loaned him the money to buy his first bank.
Unique Features:
I found this quote from an article about a candidate forum interesting, “Straz advocated letting the private sector take the lead on the problem [affordable housing in Tampa] with help from willing banks and city and federal aid. He said he had hired an African-American staffer to “help me in the urban core. So, like Trump, put a black person in charge of poverty because blacks are, presumably, all poor?!? That strikes me as remarkably out of touch… And racist.
Mike Suarez
Campaign website; Twitter;
Job History:
Unique Features:
Ed Turanchik
Campaign website
Job History:
Unique Features:
Polling Information:
July 24th, 2018 – St. Pete Polls put Jane Castor at 41%, almost 30% ahead of the next closest candidate, David Straz, at 11%.
Debates and News Coverage:
October 3rd, 2018 – You can read about the first debate here.
December 11th, 2018 – Here’s the coverage from the Tampa Bay Times on the third debate/candidate forum. Candidate statements from that debate on youtube.
January 9th, 2019 – Fourth debate covered here.
January 15th, 2019 – Another candidate forum.
Campaign finance information for all of the candidates is available here.
Other Items on the Ballot
Tampa Charter Amendments
The Tampa Bay Times details the aims of each of the amendments to the Tampa City Charter here.
District 1
Joseph Citro
Alan Clendenin
David Loos
Craig A. Newman
Walter L. Smith II
Tampa Bay Times recommends Citro.
District 2
John Godwin
Charlie Miranda (no campaign e)
Joe Robinson
Tampa Bay Times recommends Miranda.
District 3
John Dingfelder
Nicholas Glover
Stephen Lytle
Vibha “Ms. V” Shevade
Tampa Bay Times recommends Dingfelder.
This article provides some good background on each of the candidates.
District 6
Guido Maniscalco
Wendy Pepe
This article provides some good background on each of the candidates.