St. Pete voters and other political junkies: It just got a lot easier to track all of our CL and PoHo coverage of the St. Petersburg mayoral race with our new widget. Just click on a candidate’s mug to get a listing of stories and podcasts about them. The St. Petersburg Mayor’s Race widget also lives full-time on our News & Politics section front.
By Bill Stone
PoHo correspondent
As towns, cities and municipalities scramble to cut budgets, St. Petersburg continues to spend unnecessarily. For example, former Police Chief Goliath Davis makes more than $152,000 per year (just a few years ago the post paid $118,000) in his position as “Deputy Mayor of Midtown Economic Development” and continues to drive a car provided for by the city just as he did when he served as police chief.
This arrangement is troubling for several reasons. Why is Davis the only deputy mayor (there are four … and since we’re on the subject, WHY does the city require four deputy mayors?) provided a vehicle paid for by the city, and why are his auto expenses (gas, across the state and out of state expenses and more) funneled and invoiced through the police department and paid for by funds earmarked for undercover police work? Especially since First Deputy Mayor Tish Elston is on record saying Davis’ use of the vehicle has nothing to do with police functions.
Davis is the city’s top liaison to the African-American community, but his tenure has been marked by a very quiet dissent from some civic leaders who question his role and effectiveness. One mayoral candidate, Scott Wagman, has even said he likely wouldn’t keep Davis in his job, calling it a luxury the city likely can’t afford.
By William McKeen
PoHo contributor
Cross-posted from The Farm Report
I noticed it 30 years ago, when I began teaching. In my history class, students seemed to have little interest in the cast of characters until photography came along. Pictures changed the way we looked at history. We were never as interested in George Washington as were in Abraham Lincoln. It was because of those portraits of Lincoln, where we could look into his haunted eyes.
You can’t hide from pictures. The horrific video of a young woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, bleeding out on a Tehran street not only makes the political upheaval in Iran more tangible, it also shows the power of new media. We don’t turn to television, toward any immaculately dressed network news anchor, to see these images. We click on YouTube and get handheld cell phone video from a helpless bystander.
It’s November 6, 2008 in Hillsborough: Do you know who your county commissioner is?
No, you don’t. And that’s exactly what Kevin Beckner’s campaign manager, Mitch Kates, predicted. He’s currently slightly ahead of incumbent Brian Blair, who has yet to concede as early votes are still being counted.
Check out Kates’ prescient concerns from this video, shot at 10:30 p.m. on Election Night at Gaspar’s Grotto in Ybor City:
Just a sample of Tampa Bay and Florida conservatives with their reaction to last night’s Obama victory.
From Chris Ingram, a former Capitol Hill staffer and Republican consultant in Tampa:
Get Ready for Obamalism
I want to puke, but at least HRC isn’t the president-elect.My friends, George W. Bush has left our Republican Party in disarray. Make no mistake, John McCain ran a lousy campaign, but McCain could have run a lousy campaign and won had it not been for the pathetic eight years of the Bush presidency. Bush I believe will go down in modern history as our worst president — even worse than Carter.
Despite being outspent by hundreds of millions of dollars, and taking bad advice by a bunch of (Bush) people who never had his interest at heart, John McCain’s numbers on Election Night were actually respectable. Had George W. Bush been on the ballot for re-election to a third term, I’m not sure he would have even carried Texas. McCain for his part put up a good fight and managed to win enough states to show this wasn’t a clear mandate on Obamalism. But in the long run, McCain was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or as my friend and noted political scientist Darryl Paulson likes to say, George W. Bush defeated John McCain not once, but twice.
So where do we go from here? I can tell you one thing, as sick as I am that Barack Obama (a man with no experience leading anything other than a bunch of little old ladies as a community organizer), is our next president, I am thankful every time I get ready to puke about that fact, that it is not Hillary “Rob’em” Clinton who is our president-elect. Yeah, Obama sucks. He’s a socialist. He cavorts with terrorists. He has no spine. He’s untested. He has no record. But he’s not a Clinton.
And for that, I am thankful.
(Read all of our coverage last night at Election Central.)
Driving into work today, I decided to switch on a conservative radio show and see how the other side was reacting to Obama’s win. I ended up at 970 AM and Glenn Beck.
I listened to him speak for more than 20 minutes straight — about how McCain was not the right guy, how it’s no time for a Republican pity party, how it’s the perfect opportunity for the Republicans to redefine themselves, how Sarah Palin was not the reason McCain lost; and then he segued into love for the founding fathers and the people of America (well, certain people).
Beck actually soft-pedaled — as much as a conservative pundit could — the doom-and-gloom that’s coming under Obama.
It was an impressive performance. Didn’t sound scripted. I actually agreed with bits and pieces of it.
Then, at the end of the segment, Beck said, “Tonight I’m going to celebrate with a [Brand name, something like AG] steak.” I thought he was talking about his favorite steakhouse.
And then … he flowed right into a pitch for this brand of mail-order steaks that he endorses. They’re yummy, and good for you too, kind of thing.
I laughed out loud. The world had righted itself.
