Politics
2006 local elections - musical chairs.
So the Tampa Tribune reported that Thomas Scott County Commissioner for district 3 (much of central and north Tampa) announced plans to run for the Tampa City Council district 2 city wide seat held by Rose Ferlita. As I reported earlier Scott is term limited.
Tampa City Council Kevin White plans to run for Scott's seat, leaving his Tampa district 5 seat (East Tampa and part of Seminole Heights) open.
Rose is also term limited. She reportedly plan to run for the South Tampa seat of John Dingfelder, or for County District 1 of Kathy Castor.
City Council member Shawn Harrison (district 7) is term limited and plans to run for Rose's district 2 seat also. Former mayoral candidate and neighboring Riverside Heights residents also be running for Rose's seat.
Furthermore the County Commission race will have three openings (Jim Norman and Mark Sharpe are both countywide.)
Now Seminole Heights has 2 representatives in City Council, Rose (who works here) and Kevin who lives here. When Kevin leaves this will leave us Rose (I'm confident she will win.) It would be great to have 2 Seminole Heights people on City Council.
Based on Scott's recent vote on the gay ban, I suggest we need to try to deny his bid for Rose's seat. I'm sure he has a large constiuency in East Tampa, but Rose's seat is city wide. Seminole Heights needs to get behind an opposing candidate.
Aside from Kevin White, I feel we need 3 or 4 Seminole Heights residents to run for office. 1 to run for Kevin's City Council seat, and three to run for County Commissioner. Why? The more power for Seminole Heights and Central Tampa.
So who could be possible candidates? Rose set a precedent when she ran after being the President of SE Sem Hts, Civic Association. I'd suggest we look at current and former officers of the three associations.
Frank Roder (current Vice President and former President of SE Sem. Hts.)
Bill Duvall (former President of Old Sem. Hts), Randy Barron (current President of Old Sem Hts.)
Gary Elsworth (current Pres. of South Seminole Hts.)
In addition, other possibilities might be:
Susan Long (Old Sem Hts. Trustee - Evelyn City activist)
Jeff Harmon (Old Sem Hts. Trustee and Hampton Terrace activist)
Other ideas?
By the way, I wonder, if an openly gay candidate were to win a County Commission seat, would Ronda Storms refuse to sit near him/her at meetings?
8 comments:
Right on Scott!
I completely agree that we should OPPOSE Commissioner Scott- not only because of his support for the atrocious "gay ban" but also because he has consistently favored big money developers and business interests over his constituents.
The good people of East Tampa should wake up and see that he is not interested in serving them. He listens to money, honey.
I think your nominations are good. I'd support Susan- I think she'd be refreshing! :O)
Lets not forget District 5, which represents Seminole Heights west of 275, where Mary Alvarez is term limited. Duval, Baron and Ellsworth would have to run in that district. Also, District 7 (Harrison's current district) also includes a portion of Seminole Heights, including, I believe, the section where Susan Long lives. So there is the potential to have 3 SH residents on Council.
Rumor has it that Tracy Seivertson is running, too.
Every member of city council, except Dingfelder, represents a portion of Seminole Heights. Think about that for a second.
...done?...
Shawn Harrison is very much a "new Tampa" kinda guy. Dr Jeff Harmon lives in his district. (And there's a rumor Jeff may run. He's also a hearing master for code enforcement.) When the bill came up to fund (or re-fund) storm water management, Harrison voted against it. After all, New Tampa has its own and it's new. No need to spend that money, right? Except people in his district deal with flooding every time it rains. I can't imagine him representing even more of SH than he already does. Ugh.
In a county with such a large KKK presence and large percentage of black and hispanic voters, I cannot imagine a gay candidate for County Commission winning anything. I think the gay community will be lucky if they get past 2006 without an anti-gay ammendment or two to the Florida Constitution. I only forsee things getting worse. Much worse.
One of the problems is that while Seminole Heights is included in 3 districts, we are a minority in each. D6 is mostly east Tampa with a large black population, D5 is mostly west Tampa with a large hispanic population and d7 is mostly New Tampa. One potential for D5 is Andrew Baker, who ran last time. As for D7, while I agree that Susan would be a breathe of fresh air on Council, I am not sure she can (or wants to)master enough political double-speak to be electable. D5 is wide open (I don't consider Seivertson a credible candidate). Although, I am sure Redner will consider running again, especially if no powerhouse of a candidate runs.
Regarding Harmon, I don't know if he is D6 or D7, but I would vote for him whatever district he is in.
Jeff Harmon is District 7.
A point of Clarification, Dist 5 City Council is Kevin White's presently, and is east of 275 and East Tampa. Dist 6 is Presently Mary Alvarez, and includes South Sem Hts, Wellswood and W. Tampa.
Rev Tom Scott couldn't find his way to Seminole Heights with google and mapquest combined. As a neighborhood leader, I can tell you he has attended zero community events or meetings since at least 1999. I would hate so see is dismal representation taken county-wide.
Thanks Gary, I always reverse those two district numbers. I agree with you about the Rev. Scott. In fact, other than Kathy Castor, I wouldn't want any of the commissioners representing Seminole Heights, or the city in general.
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