Dick Greco on being Tampa mayor again in 2011: ‘It probably would be fun’
May 8, 2009 at 2:14 pm by Wayne Garcia
The evolution of a mayor, 1974-present?
In Tampa these days, playing “Will Dick Greco run for mayor in 2011?” is getting to be nearly a full-time sport, the rumors are just that hot-and-heavy. So I picked up the telephone and gave him a call and asked him, “Are you getting ready to run for mayor – yet again?”
The answer?
“I haven’t seriously given any thought to it,” Greco said, laughing. “Everybody thinks the race is in 2010. It’s March 2011. If I was talking about running for mayor, I wouldn’t start two years out. It’s just way to early.”
If that sounds like a non-denial denial, keep reading.
Even though balloting is nearly two years away, the number of big-name candidates already in the race or rumored to be running is unprecedented. Councilman Tom Scott announced last week that he wants to start early so he can raise enough money for his campaign (you can download a .pdf of the announcement here press-release-councilman-thomas-scott-2). Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena told Creative Loafing that she’s in, as well, but will not formally announce for some time. And County Commissioner Rose Ferlita has “announced” on Facebook but not held a formal newser face the media about her strong desire to be the next mayor of Tampa.
Also out there are some big names who are considering the race, too. Former Councilman Bob Buckhorn told me last week that he is definitely interested and weighing entry. (He ran and lost in 2003.) Former County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, who has been building a line of low-cost “green” homes in West Tampa, is also thinking about it.
But the specter of Greco eclipses them all in terms of lore and media interest.
Greco is the city’s 50th and 56th mayor (1967-74 and 1995-2003). He loves to talk about his accomplishments (during his second tenure, the city passed the Community Investment Tax, which built Raymond James Stadium, dozens of schools and parks, streets and the like for decades) and even produced a booklet outlining all of them after he left office in 2003.
There was a time when it was unthinkable that a Greco candidacy could fail. He was that popular. But while Tampa is capable of giving him a third round in the mayor’s office, Greco’s winning is not a foregone conclusion. His reputation was tarnished at least to some degree by a scandal in his administrtion’s housing department that saw an employee go to prison. And there’s the age question. Greco was 34 when he first took the job. He is now 75. “The first, they said I was too young,” Greco recalled. “Now, they’ll say I’m too old.”
He’s downplaying the idea of running, publicly for now. But he still seems to have a fire in the belly to add “Tampa’s 58th mayor” to his political resume.
“It probably would be fun,” he said. “The truth of the matter is I’ve loved being mayor. I’d rather do that than anything else I’ve ever done.”
C’mon 2011.
