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.”

By Dan Sullivan
PoHo contributor

Dear Attorney General Bill McCollum,

There’s no easy way to tell you this, so I think I’ll just go ahead and say it: I think we should see other people. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a great guy and all, but I’m just not so sure I can handle a serious relationship with you for governor. It’s not you, it’s me. Well, actually, it’s just you.

If you really want to know the truth, my heart has been stolen by another. Her name is Paula Dockery. She’s a delightful girl who lives in Lakeland. I only just recently became friends with her on Facebook, but the more I hear about her, the more I really want to see her make a run for governor in 2010.

I don’t doubt that Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer had good intentions when he fixed me up with you. And you really are a great guy. But as my buddy Marco Rubio has been repeating in his speeches lately as he travels the state, Floridians (i.e., me) deserve a choice in this election season.

I’m not saying I don’t want anything to do with you. You’ve done an admirable job in your many laps around the political racetrack. Heck, we all know you were a better man for the U.S. Senate in 2004 than Mel Martinez. You were robbed, there, Bill. But we gave you the AG spot as a consolation prize in ‘06. That ought to be good enough — a nice way to cap off a long and eventful career in politics. After all, did you really want the Clinton impeachment hearings to be the main highlight of your career?

Don’t take this too hard, Bill. You should be proud of all you’ve done. As AG, you’ve done great work in getting tough on cyber-criminals. Of course, I must admit all this talk about you paying millions to a former campaign consultant to produce anti-cyber crime ads right before you start your campaign does rub me the wrong way. The whole thing gave me a weird Buddy Johnson vibe when I heard about it.

At this point, Bill, I think we should just be friends. You’ve paid your dues and done your time. Now you and the wife can have a nice quiet retirement back in Brooksville.

When it comes to the governor’s race, my fellow voters and I simply prefer someone younger and more eloquent. Someone more of us can relate to on a personal level. Paula is all of those things.

Her most recent claim to fame of course was her single-handed blockage of the SunRail-CSX deal – which would have been a shameless waste of taxpayer dollars had it been allowed to pass. In the face of extreme pressure from fellow state Senate Republicans to back down on her opposition to SunRail, Paula stood her ground. She told the whole story at the most recent Polk County Republican Executive Committee meeting.

Paula is the kind of politician who can get the state out of the economic mess that too-tan Charlie is leaving behind. She also has all of the most important bases covered – pro-life, anti-tax, pro-family. Granted, I was a little concerned when some of my Ron Paul-worshipping friends took a liking to her. But from what I can tell, Paula is no libertarian nutball. She’s a sensible conservative who knows that the taxpayers are the boss, not big corporations or lobbyists or political bigwigs.

Simply put, Bill, we can’t have just another old white guy whose been in politics for nearly 30 years going up against Alex Sink. We need someone principled and down-to-earth. If given the choice, I choose Paula.

Don’t take this too hard, Bill. You really are a great guy.

All the best,
Dan

The announcement of their $65-a-head workshop, however, set off the buzzing-gnat comment-ers over at Buzz blog, who launched into a wild attack against Biddle, his party, his mortgage and house and his age (which they overstated by 14 years). When somebody came to Biddle’s defense, the crowd turn on Kates as an alternative. Nothing like a digital mugging.

Details on the workshop after the jump:

Workshop to Prepare Potential Candidates on the Realities of Running for Office

“Walk Before You Run – A Primer on Running for Political Office” to be held March 28 in downtown St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Fla. (February 23, 2009) – If the thought of running for political office has ever crossed your mind, then don’t miss the workshop, “Walk Before You Run – A Primer on Running for Political Office,” hosted by Common Language, Think Big! and PlanningWorks. The program was designed to offer people who’d like to run for elected office valuable insights into what it’s like to be a political candidate and help them determine if they have what it takes to launch a campaign.

“Walk Before You Run” will be held on Saturday, March 28, from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. at Studio @620 in St. Petersburg.

“It’s been our experience that most people have a lot of unreal expectations when it comes to running for office. They don’t really understand what they’re getting themselves and their families into,” said Larry Biddle, owner and principal of PlanningWorks. “This workshop will enlighten potential candidates about the realities of running for office, like asking people for money and building a support system of volunteers.”

“Walk Before You Run” will feature numerous local elected officials, party leaders and political commentators sharing their advice and experience on a variety of topics, including:

·         Overview of criteria for a viable political candidate
·         What challenges can you expect as a candidate, and how would you overcome them?
·         What it takes to get started:  determining if you’re qualified, testing the waters, and getting candidate training
·         Initial campaign planning

At the end of the day, attendees will break out into groups for an exercise on designing a campaign for a fictitious “Candidate Joe” to understand how what they learned is applied in practice.

“We want to make sure people have an understanding of the process as well as the role of the office for which they’re considering a run,” said Mitch Kates, political consultant and principal of Think Big! “You’d be surprised how many people actually get into office and once there, think, ‘Gee, this is not the job I thought it would be.’ It’s really important that candidates ask themselves if they fully understand what their responsibilities would be and if they’re running for the right office.”

Confirmed speakers at this time include Kevin Beckner, Hillsborough County Commissioner; Mary Mulhern, Tampa City Councilwoman; Rep. Bill Heller; Alison Morano, Pasco County DEC chair; Patricia Kemp, Hillsborough County DEC chair; Ken Quinnell, Florida Progressive Coalition and Mark Ferrulo, Executive Director of Progress Florida.

The cost of the full-day workshop is $65 and will include lunch. To register, visit:

http://common-language.com/index.php?option=conference&action=conference.

(Disclosure: Larry Biddle is the domestic partner of CL Editor David Warner, who did not participate in the selection or editing of this blog post.)

Two of my passions are gourmet food and politics. When I’m not walking door-to-door for a candidate, I’m in front of a stove or near a wine bin or doing something otherwise epicurean. So the fundraising event for a candidate running in Dunedin I recently attended was a real McFlurry, a seemingly contradictory juxtaposition that comes out wonderfully by the time you’re finished.

I was invited to a campaign fund-raiser with a theme of “Cooking with the Candidate” during which a five-course meal was prepared by a master chef, while the candidate, appropriately named Dave Eggers, milled about, wine glass in hand, talking to what I consider the perfect voter: one whose mouth is so filled (in this case with braised lamb) that they can’t ask any questions. It was Top Chef meets The West Wing. Guests were even given toques to wear.

Absorbing all of this, seeing how far this campaign had to go to pull of a successful event, it struck me that political fundraising is entering new territory now that the economy has crashed. No political consultant has ever tried to raise money for a candidate in this kind of environment.

If people rob banks because that’s where the money was, where do they go now? To whom do professional fundraisers — only slightly less criminal, but just as ambitious as bank robbers — turn for hefty donations? Certainly not investment bankers. They’re too busy filling out unemployment applications. What about Realtors? No, they’ve been earning 6 percent of nothing for more than a year. Certainly developers still have some money to dole out? One word rules them out: foreclosure.

Sure, there are some doctors and lawyers out there who can still cut a $500 check to a local candidate, but that can only get you so far. It’s so bad out there that a professional political fundraiser just told me that two of the traditionally largest donors to the local Republican Party are themselves 30 days away from Chapter 11.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan makes the argument that we are about enter a new era of reading, that with less money, inexpensive pleasures like reading will displace expensive diversions like PlayStations and flat-screen televisions.

Take Noonan’s prediction a step further and apply her thinking to the changes that will impact political campaigns. Fewer TV commercials and more town hall meetings. Less direct mail, with it’s ever-increasing postage costs, and more door-knocking. Call it the return of retail politics. Except, like retailing itself, it’s all moving online.

At least, that’s where the technology is heading. Facebook is nothing if it’s not a town center. Blogs, Twitter, YouTube … they’re all free, and they’re the medium by which campaigns will be won.

That’s why there was something nostalgic about the campaign event I attended. At $50 a plate, this was a bargain for all involved. The candidate was able to leisurely interact with his supporters, offering real face-time with potential voters. He wasn’t Twittering — in fewer than 140 characters — his policy proposals. And the voters were able to get a real sense of the candidate, more than what you can glean by adding him as a friend on MySpace.

This may seem like a stretch, but good politics is a lot like good eating, and maybe that’s why they are my twin passions. Just as you can’t get a feel for a restaurant by making your reservation online via OpenTable, nor can you get the measure of a candidate by reading his website. Both actions are just starting points. You can’t know how something tastes by downloading a recipe, nor will you know how a politician thinks by downloading his speeches. You have to taste politics, just as you have to taste good food.

Bon Appetit.

The billboard on Ehrlich Road in north Tampa touting the re-election of Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair reads, in fine print at the bottom, “Political advertisement paid for and approved by Brian Blair, Republican for Hillsborough County Commission, District 6.”

It appears, however, that his campaign did not pay for the billboard advertisement. Blair’s campaign finance reports show no such expenditure. And according to an invoice obtained by Creative Loafing, the bill for the $2,500-a-month roadway sign was sent to North Dale Development, which is owned by Stephen Dibbs, a controversial and prominent developer who has supported Blair in the past.

If Dibbs did pay for the billboard, it would appear to exceed the limits in the state campaign finance law, which caps direct or in-kind contributions to candidate campaigns at $500 and requires disclosure of any contributions.

Among Dibbs’ various holdings is the Bourbon Street Plaza shopping strip center where the billboard is located. It is not clear from the invoice whether Dibbs paid for the board. The invoice was provided to CL by a source who requested anonymity because the source was not authorized to release the document.

The invoice, from CBS Outdoor, which sells the billboard’s advertising space, was dated Aug. 20, 2008, for use of the billboard in the month of August. The 10-foot-by-36-foot sign is highly visible to anyone driving west on Ehrlich from North Dale Mabry Highway. It was still in place last week when CL visited the site.

Neither Dibbs nor Blair responded to numerous telephone and e-mailed requests for comment for this story.

Who paid for this campaign billboard on Ehrlich Road in Tampa?

Read the entire story, which is already on our website.

UPDATE: Neither Blair nor Beckner has spoken to Creative Loafing about this story, but a Tampa Tribune reporter told me Tuesday that Blair has now produced a campaign check cut to CBS Outdoor on Sept. 19 and insists he paid for all his campaign advertising himself. Blair spoke to reporters with the Trib and Times after he was criticized during Tuesday’s county commission meeting about the subject of the story.

Right now, “uncompensated Internet activity” is protected by a Federal Election Commission regulation that allows linking to campaign websites and writing about the views of federal candidates—which, without the regulation, could potentially be considered a campaign contribution or expenditure on the candidate’s behalf. Basically, blogs currently share the same protection from campaign finance restrictions as other media outlets.

The problem is that since this protection is regulatory, it can be changed without congressional action. Rep. Hensarling will introduce legislation that will create statutory blogger protections in the hopes of creating a more permanent solution for our online “pajama journalists.” Forge on, brave bloggers!

To that end, Beckner has hired political consultant Mitch Kates to helm (love using nouns that aren’t verbs as verbs, sounds so insider-cable-newsy) his campaign. Kates has a short, but strong, record of taking underdogs to victory in Tampa Bay (Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern and state Sen. Charlie Justice).

So, is Tampa Bay — land of the banning of Gay Pride displays in Hillsborough public libraries — ready to replace Blair with Beckner, who is gay and has worked actively in both progressive campaigns and GLBT issues? Kates says yes and points to races in Oklahoma and Alabama where openly gay candidates beat Republicans as evidence that it can be done.

Plus, Beckner already seems tireless in the race and has raised an impressive $36,000 in his first partial quarter of fundraising, Kates said. That money came from about 200 contributors in both parties, Kates added.

I hope to get together with Beckner soon to talk about his platform and ideas, but in the meantime, I am more intrigued with the possibility of Kates and Blair meeting to settle this in the squared circle instead of at the ballot box. Both are former professional wrestlers: Kates as Jason the Terrible (left) and Blair (right) as a member of the tag team duo The Killer Bees.

Coming aboard are two campaign managers (Jett Jackson and Mitch Kates), a communications director (Peter Schweitzer) and two consultants, the mother-daughter team Ana Cruz and Janet Rifkin, both prominent Tampa Democratic consultants.

Faulkner, who was chief of staff for St. Pete Democratic state Rep. Frank Peterman and a campaigner for Congresswoman Kathy Castor, is running for Rene Flowers’ District 7 seat. Flowers is term-limited.