Busansky to announce run for Elections office
February 6th, 2008 by Wayne Garcia in Politics, Tampa Bay PoliticsPhyllis Busansky, a Democratic Hillsborough County commissioner in the 1980s and ’90s, is set to announce her bid 
for Supervisor of Elections on Thursday.
Busansky would take on incumbent Supervisor Buddi Johnson if she wins an expected primary contest against fellow Democrat Lee Nelson. Johnson, although a frequent target of news reports about screw-ups in his office, is expected to be a tough pol to dislodge, given Hillsborough County’s skew toward GOP candidates.
Busansky confirmed her candidacy in a conversation with PoHo last night. She is recovered from lung cancer surgery and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006.
(Full disclosure: I previously worked in Busansksy’s 1996 congressional campaign and worked for her when she was the director of the state’s welfare-to-work program, WAGES.)
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February 6th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Wayne, your former business partner Mary Repper worked on Busansky’s 1988 campaign. Busansky was one of your consulting firms top clients. Repper was an ardent Busansky supporter.
We know you have conflict of interests, but come on. Your firm did everything short of getting in cheerleading outfits* and waving pom poms for Busansky.
Let someone else cover the Supervisor of Elections story. Give it to Bardi. It will give him a reason not to watch Snider eat strange shit and read Hitchens’ articles.
Side note: Creative Loafing really needs to rethink it’s Youtube content. Have any of you checked the numbers of how many people are watching the CL videos? Mike Gravel is doing better in votes.
Here is a novel idea. Why don’t you put news content and interviews on Youtube. I know the marketing department wants to reach the dancing chicken demographic. CL might try posting popular videos on viral sites that pay and will increase advertising revenue on the web site. The days of escort ads keeping alternative weeklies running are numbered.
* If anyone has a photo of Garcia in a cheerleading outfit, send it to me. I’ll use it for a write a caption post. It can’t be worse than the Senator or Peter Pan.
February 7th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Is she running for Congress or Supervisor Elections?
The link above links to her web site where there is a new letter from phyllis….here’s the letter…is she senile now?
http://www.busanskyforcongress.com/index.php/letter_phyllis.html
Letter from Phyllis
The Time for Change is Now
02.06.2008
I am more convinced today than when I decided to run for Congress that we must change the direction that the country is heading.
One year ago we thought that our troops could begin to come home by this fall. Today we are increasing our presence in Iraq in what people expect to be the deadliest month of the year. We are caught in the middle of a civil war in Bagdad to which the Administration and my opponent are committed. My opponent stands with Donald Rumsfeld saying that we must stay the course rather than examining viable alternatives. I believe we must act now to separate the warring factions into three states as recommended in the Biden plan. This will let us redeploy our troops and begin to bring some stability to the country while its infrastructure is rebuilt.
Gas prices have more than doubled and Halliburton just announced a record quarter. But yet Congress passes more and more tax breaks for the oil industry. We still lack a comprehensive energy plan that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We produce 3% of the world’s oil and consume 22% of the world’s oil. We could change that by moving to renewable energy and taking reasonable steps to reduce our usage of energy. Rather the Republican leadership is determined to increase the drilling in the gulf by bringing the oil rigs closer to our Florida shore.
Homeowners are being gouged by record increases in their insurance with many people being dropped even though they never filed a claim. Insurance companies collude and engage in joint marketing activities that are permitted due to an exemption from the anti-trust laws. We must resume federal regulation of insurance companies if we are going to have an open and competitive market.
The way the Foley sex scandal is being handled shows clearly that the Republican leadership is more concerned about staying in power than doing what is right and protecting our youth. Yet my opponent says the leadership is doing a good job and he will take a stance after he is elected.
We can only change Congress by changing the people. You can act on November 7th by going out to vote in one of the most important elections in modern times.
Thank you for all your support,
Phyllis “Bulldozer†Busansky
….lol, ‘bulldozer’
February 7th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Say what you want about me Hussey, but leave Hitchens out of this!
February 7th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Michael is right about my former partner Repper being the consultant for Busanksy’s 1988 campaign, eight years before I joined the firm. I will have to check FEC records but I do not recall being paid for our advice to her in 1996 (and that advice and involvement was pretty limited). And I don’t plan on “covering” the Busanksy race because of that history and conflict, at least much beyond that simple blog reference because I happened to run into Busansky the evening before.
Bardi on the job does present interesting possibilities, however …
and as for the cheerleading outfit, they didn’t make them in my size in those days, but now that I have lost weight I bet I can find a right smart looking set of pom poms and pleated skirt.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Can we please put forth AND support the best qualified candidate for this position? LEE NELSON not only has the chops, but has the very essence of integrity.
If all of the people who sit back and discuss electability and try and figure out why no one “good” ever runs would actually support the candidate in this race that would make the Democratic Party proud - we would easily beat Johnson. Instead, they would rather support a name. Get to know Lee - you would change your mind!
February 7th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
we have a race.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/02/busansky-to-run.html
http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/2008/02/lee-nelsons-response-to-phyllis.html#links