The Political Whore

A curious piece of political literature has been hitting South Tampa homes over the past few days as a handful of County Commissioner Ken Hagan’s supporters do what is called a “lit drop” of campaign literature.

Only it is not really campaign literature, or at least, it doesn’t carry the necessary campaign disclosures that a campaign advertisement would carry. Nor is it a county government piece, as it points out that it was “Not produced at taxpayer’s expense.”

That left some Democrats e-mailing me furiously about how this was akin to the stealth campaign that Buddy Johnson ran with federal dollars in 2008, the one being probed by the Feds and the St. Pete TImes’ Jeff Testerman. And it caught the attention of at least one Democrat who has been thinking about running against the Republican Hagan in 2010.

“It was on my doorknob,” said Mary Mulhern, a Tampa City Council member who is considering the Hagan race, or the mayor’s race in 2011, or re-election to her own seat on the Council.

And getting Mulhern’s attention — or at least the attention of South Tampa Democrats who have been talking up a challenge to the north Tampa commissioner — may have been Hagan’s ulterior motive.

“Oh, I never thought of that, i just thought it was a non-campaign campaign piece,” said Mulhern. “I was curious that the north hillsborough county commissioner was actually checking in with constituents who are not his constituents in South Tampa. I don’t think it’s intimidation; he’s got to get some name recognition down here.”

I couldn’t reach Hagan late Friday after getting the non-campaign piece. But it is an old campaign trick and an advantage of incumbency; under the cover of a “constituent survey” you get your name out in neighborhoods that frankly may not know you exist. Hagan’s current district covers New Tampa and other northern parts of Hillsborough County, nowhere near South Tampa. In 2010, however, he wants to jump to a countywide seat to beat term limits in his existing seat.

Since Hagan apparently used personal funds, nobody is saying what he is doing is illegal.

“I doubt that he would have done it if it isn’t legal,” Mulhern said. “If it is a campaign piece you have to say who paid for it. I think it is iffy, but I haven’t looked into whether it would be legal or not. It certainly does have that look of what Buddy Johnson was doing. I think he’s got some vulnerability if he thinks he’s got to start sending out campaign literature so soon.”

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