Who will take on Brian Blair?
July 9, 2008 at 10:43 am by Wayne GarciaAs I wrote in our print edition of CL last week, removing Republican Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair should be the top priority of progressives throughout Tampa Bay. 
Blair, who led the fight to curtail wetlands protections, is best known for his criticism of the school “Day of Silence” as a gay-recruitment plot of some kind. And last night in Brandon, the three Democrats who hope to face him in November faced off in a mild debate that focused more on style differences than competing stances on issues.
Growth management activist and Tallahassee lobbyist Denise Layne, smart growth advocate Joe Redner and financial planner and former cop Kevin Beckner all fielded questions from the East Hillsborough Democratic Club, one of the fastest rising and most dynamic of the Democratic groups trying to make Hillsborough blue again. 
The trio appeared to differ on the issues in only a few instances: Redner, for instance, strongly supports Florida Hometown Democracy and has donated tens of thousands to it, while Layne and Beckner support the concept of more citizen involvement in land-use decisions but have either questions or concerns about the specifics of the Hometown Democracy direct-referendum method of planning.
Here is a video of all three answering a question about their priority for mass transit:
Oh, and for those media junkies, there was no other media representative in sight. My, how things have changed in four years, from the days when local races actually got coverage.
(photos & video by Wayne Garcia)
