The Political Whore

From the there’s-no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity-(or-polling) files comes this pitch to Scott Wagman supporters to pony up some bucks despite a pretty rotten showing in a recent St. Petersburg Times poll that placed Wagman tied for fourth, behind Kathleen Ford, Bill Foster and Deveron Gibbons and tied with Larry Williams.

For those not studied in the art of politics, this is called spin.

But before the Wagman haters chime in, let’s give some context to the poll. More than 60 percent of the voters surveyed said they didn’t have a preference yet, meaning that this is a wide open race and the poll was only an indication of a lack of voter engagement and existing name recognition, not a legit look at who will finish in what order. I don’t say this to defend Wagman’s poor showing; but the truth is not all of the campaigns have spent little or nothing in tems of direct voter contact (direct mail, television ads, radio ads, robo-phone calls, etc.) that is what gets voters ready to make decisions. At best, some of the campaigns have been walking door to door and using some new media advertising on Facebook and the like. That’s not enough to drive serious interest to an off-election year municipal election.

But Wagman felt his placement in the poll could be spun to his advantage with supporters and sent them this e-mail today:

Dear Friend,

About the recent St. Petersburg Times poll:

We were delighted. That’s because as the other candidates made little or no significant progress we increased our percentage of decided voters (as compared with our own poll taken earlier this year).

It simply proves that, as our message of change gets out to undecided voters, we win.

With 61% of voters still undecided, our challenge is to continue on that path over the next week. We can’t do that without you.

In less than 13 days almost 60,000 ballots to elect St. Petersburg’s Mayor will arrive in mailboxes. That’s never happened before.

I believe, with the unprecedented challenges facing our city, that we must have open, fresh, strong, effective executive leadership instead of politics as usual. DONATE NOW

Help us get our message out to early voters while there’s still time. Without it, uninformed voters will decide the future of our beloved city.

Please make a contribution of $13, or $26 or whatever you can afford by midnight June 30th — our final quarterly report before the Primary. It will make a difference.

Many thanks,
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P.S. As mayor, I will be a strong leader for change, focused on making city government more efficient and improving public safety. In less than 13 days almost 60,000 voters will have received vote-by-mail ballots. Help me get my message of change and new leadership to those voters while there’s still time.

Disclosure time: My boss, CL Tampa Editor David Warner, is the domestic partner of one of Wagman’s political consultants, Larry Biddle. Because of this conflict, he does not partcipate in any way in CL’s coverage of the mayor’s race.

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