The Political Whore

Over in the Clearwater Times there is an interesting peek into how newspapers (consciously or unconsciously) reinforce the status quo. In an editorial about citizen complaints about the recent Ironman Triathlon (a pet project of Mayor Frank Hibbard), the Times editorialized:

Mayor Frank Hibbard, who has made promoting health and fitness part of his first term, lamented that there have been criticisms of the triathlon. [emphasis added]

Hibbard has been elected mayor just one time, in 2004 when no one ran against him. He stands for re-election in 2008. The editorial pre-supposes that he will indeed be re-elected and serve a second term. It’s understandable, however, given that Clearwater officials moved up their spring elections from March to Jan. 29, a benefit to incumbents, as a Times story by Mike Donila said in September:

[T]he change means candidates wishing to run for the two open City Council seats or the mayoral post will have about a month less to campaign. That could give an advantage to the incumbents because of their name recognition.

In fact, two City Council incumbents didn’t even draw a challenger by the filing deadline. But Hibbard did: former Mayor Rita Garvey, who lost a re-election bid after a 1998 arrest for drunken driving. She openly addresses the issue of her alcoholism these days.

I’m not saying that Hibbard should lose or that Garvey should win. I am saying that moving up the election with such short notice likely cut some people out of the race. And I’m saying that Hibbard shouldn’t be given the aura of inevitability by referring to his role in the current Ironman brouhaha  in terms of his “first term” goals.

(Full disclosure: I worked for the Clearwater Times section from 1992-94. I represented Hibbard as a political consultant in his first city commission election but not in his mayoral campaigns. I represented Brian Aungst, who beat Garvey in 1999 after her DUI arrest.)

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