Seven knuckleheads or one?
July 24, 2008 at 8:47 am by Wayne GarciaThat’s the question I investigate in my story about the movement for an elected county mayor in this week’s print CL editions. As in, do you have seven county commissioners running Hillsborough County with the help of an appointed, professional manager, or do you elect one strong county mayor to run things instead of the current appointed county manager. Here’s an excerpt:
Last week, the bipartisan group supporting an elected county mayor rolled out some decidedly B-list and C-list political figures who are on board with their movement. They have a PAC and are raising money for campaign ads, with a professional political consultant helping guide their efforts.
The opponents, meanwhile, are unorganized and without either consultants or a fundraising committee.
And yet I have to think that beating the county mayor plan wouldn’t be all that tough. Opponent Beth Rawlins, a political consultant (and former colleague of mine when I was running campaigns), offers this simple strategy for defeating it:
Advertise on several huge billboards along I-275 before the election, with the simple words “County Mayor Brian Blair” and Blair’s picture. The following week, you swap out Jim Norman’s name and photo for Blair’s. Then Ronda Storms. And so forth until Election Day.
“You basically just run through the County Commission,” said Rawlins, who has helped defeat strong mayor referendums in several communities in Florida on behalf of her clients, the Florida City and County Management Association and the International City/County Management Association.
Her point should be well taken by even those who support the county mayor plan: Do we have a single politician who can unite the entire county and has strong managerial skills and not some crazy agenda?
I couldn’t reach Elected County Mayor PAC founder Mary Ann Stiles before my deadline, but I spoke to her yesterday, and she said the scenario cited by Rawlins is “presumptuous,” since voters haven’t even yet approved the change to an elected administrator.
I’ll post the results of my interview with Stiles here later today, along with an interview with Jim Shirk, the Democratic activist who has sued to take the Elected County Mayor referendum off the November ballot. It is the first media interview with him, to my knowledge.
