This week’s column from the print edition of Creative Loafing:

About 500-600 people are voting for a new mayor of St. Petersburg every day now, part of what has become a vote-by-mail system of absentee voting in Florida. Nearly 60,000 city residents have requested an absentee ballot, almost 40 percent of the registered voters.

That’s a big number. So why do I hear so many complaints about the 2009 race to succeed Mayor Rick Baker being a real snoozer? Polling earlier in the month showed that 61 percent of the voters didn’t have a preference among the 10 candidates running. And although nearly 7,000 people had voted by the end of last week, there is very little visible to any of the campaigns, beyond the ubiquitous yard signs. It’s impossible to time the peak of your political campaign when Election Day lasts 45 days, and no candidate has enough money to run a full-bore mass media campaign for that long.

Take the latest mayoral forum, held by St. Pete Preservation last week in front of about 100 good folks at Studio@620. I popped in to shoot a few photos and perhaps hear their stump speeches, but after almost an hour the crowd had heard only from preservationists, who got five minutes apiece to school nine candidates on why historic preservation is important. Even the hometown St. Petersburg Times didn’t staff the preservation forum. When the candidates did begin to talk, there wasn’t much separation.

How can something be anticlimactic before it’s even over?

Here are the reasons why this year’s city election is having a hard time connecting with voters:

There’s no Barack Obama running: To be sure, the field of mayoral candidates is way short on charisma and visionary dreaming. Voters (and news reporters) are a little spoiled after 2008’s rock-star-fest of an election with Obama and his adoring crowds and big ideas and cool-as-shit posters. You get no such electricity from this bunch. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t at least five or six of these candidates who could actually administer the day-to-day operations of the city, who have the political and/or administrative chops regardless of what you think of their ideologies or priorities (Kathleen Ford, Scott Wagman, Larry Williams, Bill Foster, Jamie Bennett and, perhaps, Deveron Gibbons). Ford’s trying hard not to seem bitchy; Wagman’s digital persistence and sense of humor misconnects and earned him the name “douche” in the Splog blog; Gibbons hides out from mainstream media interviews, waiting for his expected TV campaign to kick in;  Foster and Williams are low-key City Hall insiders who speak the language of bureaucracy; and Bennett, given no chance to win after his Peter Schorsch-fueled meltdown (see below)

The field is too big for its own good: As a former political consultant, I can tell you that a field this big (10 total candidates, seven of which are serious contenders) creates a dynamic where nobody wants to criticize or take on their opponents and their ideas or records because they may need that opponent in the runoff election. On Sept. 1, the two top finishers go on to a Nov. 3 final contest. I always advised my clients in such a situation that they wanted to be the No. 2 choice of every one of their opponents, so suck up and be nice to them. And that is exactly what we are seeing, the politics of chummy and nice, for the most part. That all changes on Sept. 2, but for now, snoozerama.

It is a tough campaign for journlists and bloggers to cover: Ahh, the good old days of St. Petersburg politics, when the two major political powers (The Shore Acres-Snell Isle-downtown business-north of Central crowd joined with Midtown voters to take on the populist West St. Petersburg faction). Each side would anoint a champion and the battle was engaged. Black hat vs. white hat. Monied interests vs. anti-tax neighborhoods. That all changed in 2001, with the election of Mayor Rick Baker, who blew away the usual Central Avenue dividing line of St. Petersburg politics. Today’s modern St. Pete politics are very complex, with new players on the scene, empowered neighborhood associations and more players of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Party affiliation plays a bigger role, too, even though it is a nonpartisan race. It’s not just five or six white guys in dark suits who control the city, as a recent Times column pined for. It’s no excuse for shallow reporting, though.

News coverage has been picayune: The Times has written stories about the following missteps/flubs/nonevents: Bill Foster flipped hamburgers with city cops who may or may not have been on duty, possibily violating laws against campaigning at work; Scott Wagman may or may not have violated campaign disclosure laws by not putting the usual “paid political adv” verbiage on small Google Ads; fringe candidate Paul Congemi bitched out a Kentucky Fried Chicken employee so much that the cops were called;  candidate yard signs are in the right of way; and another candidate has a whole bunch of speeding tickets. It’s not that the paper hasn’t written about substantive issues. It’s just that the level of niggling and useless detail on other stories and coverage numbs readers minds.

One politico told me on background, “The coverage is just dreadful. Obvious mistakes are what gets the coverage. (And) several of the candidates are just so poorly informed that they are hard-pressed to say something.”

Peter Schorsch is a one-man election wrecking crew: Former PoHo contributing blogger Schorsch should have been nowhere near the city of St. Petersburg election. After all, his arrest a few years back on charges of ripping off some of his political consulting clients should have put the last nail in the coffin of his political work. But after a few years in the wilderness, he returned as Jamie Bennett’s campaign manager, contributing to the eventual fall of Bennett’s chances when a wide array of inappropriate city luxury box baseball ticket-giving and other unsavory ratfucking political tricks came to light when Bennett and Schorsch had a falling out. Now, Schorsch, who normally reps Democrats, has thrown his support and online poison pen to right-wing Republican Bill Foster. He pops up to question candidates at Tiger Bay Club; he files election law complaints; he snarks on his blog.

(Full Dislcosure: CL Editor David Warner’s partner, Larry Biddle, is a paid consultant to the Scott Wagman campaign. To avoid that conflict influencing our coverage, he plays no role in assigning or editing stories about the mayoral election.)

I’m fascinated by John Warren, a longshot and last-minute candidate in the St. Petersburg mayoral race. He has a long history in the city as a preservationist, history advocate, real estate investor and — currently — the owner of Savannah’s Cafe on Central Avenue. Yes, he’s made rookie mistakes at a recent forum and in his campaign finances. But that’s not important. What is important is his message about learning from the past and looking at the city’s problems (especially those downtown) as all linked. He would restart the city’s visioning process to work on solutions in the aggregate.

Listening to Warren makes you think outside the box about the problems in St. Petersburg. Sure, as the Times has pointed out, he’s long on pointing out the problems and short on pat “solutions.” But his solution is the processes he advocates, the transparency and inclusion and comprehensiveness, and he bring an entrepreneurial bent and preservationist’s soul to the campaign, and that is refreshing.

I also asked him about the problem of aggressive panhandling. He had this to say:

Well, we do have an ordinance that serves a portion of downtown and it’s to discourage aggressive panhandling. But I think for a lot of the merchants who are down there right now, aggressive can be anybody who is sitting in front of their business. The presence of an unbathed individual sitting right at their front door is as aggressive and deters as much business as somebody that’s actually going up with a stick and asking you for a dollar.

CL: But that’s not something that’s drawing police action.

They are not. What really ought to be recognized is that downtown sidewalks and our whole street grid system is intended to allow for society to move, to flow, and your sidewalks downtown originally were owned by the property owners, and those rights were given up so that commerce could be conducted. Commerce is important for a strong tax base. Unless the community has a source of revenue, there is no way they can take care of the destitute. It’s important, No. 1, for us to recognize that the homeless, … is completely different from the career panhandler or the individual who has chosen not to live in a shelter or live in a home. And that distinction needs to be recognized. A lot of downtown business people are very charitable. They’d like to be able to help.

It makes business very difficult if you have the career panhandler who is competing and threatening the livelihood of those businesses whose sales and taxes are going to be providing for the other individual who genuinely has that need.

So, how do you balance that? One of the things that has been considered in other communities is extending to the merchant, or property owner, a bit more control. you’re not giving the land back to them, because you can’t, but assigning back to them some responsibilty for maintaining the property between the curb and their doors.

CL: So they would have the ability to say you’re trespassing on their area.

Exactly. It’s a delicate issue. There still are a lot of people who feel that any piece of property in front of business out to the curb belongs to the public, it’s a public right of way, without recognizing that public right of way was intended for infrastructure elements that are under the surface…

CL: And not as a living room…

It’s not somebody’s bedroom or bathroom.

Listen to the full interview with John Warren after the jump.

Download here.

UPDATE: We have 10 candidates for mayor, as Alex Haak didn’t qualify. They are Deveron Gibbons, Kathleen Ford, Bill Foster, Scott Wagman, Larry Williams, Jamie Bennett, John Warren, Richard Eldridge, Ed Helm and Paul Congemi. The primary election to determine the two finalists is Sept. 1.

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Today is the last day to file all the necessary paperwork to run for St. Petersburg mayor or city council, a day called Qualifying Day. We’ll know who is in and who is out by 5 pm.

A last-minute entry into the field, however, is entrepreneur, preservationist and restaurateur John Warren, 59, who owns Savannah’s Cafe on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg.

Warren, who has been frustrated by the city’s inability to help small businesses and truly grow its downtown in a sensible fashion, told supporters in an e-mail that he knows he is getting in late but doesn’t hear the issues he thinks ought to be disucssed.

“I don’t believe current candidates are addressing the issues that need to be discussed, nor do I feel they have the vision or experiences to deal with today’s challenges. Apparently many of you agree,” Warren wrote.

He also hints that he will get rid of controversial police Chief Chuck Harmon if the SPPD can’t start battling crime more effectively.

Here is his e-mail to supporters:

Dear Friend,

I’m sending you this note because I know you like surprises. And here it is—although I know it’s late in the campaign, I’ve decided to enter the race for mayor of St. Petersburg. Less of a shock, I’d like your support.

I don’t believe current candidates are addressing the issues that need to be discussed, nor do I feel they have the vision or experiences to deal with today’s challenges. Apparently many of you agree. The St. Petersburg Times recently completed a survey that reported over 60% of registered voters are undecided.

The public clearly wants more from their mayor. They want someone whose experiences give them confidence their concerns will be addressed. I believe I’ve got those experiences. I’ve 35 years running successful businesses and supporting many cultural programs. My activities include leading historic preservation efforts, advancing art and neighborhood interests, and fighting for small business.

My administration’s priorities will be protecting and expanding jobs, offering new programs to fight crime, and working to restore confidence in City government. To attract top jobs we need a quality of life that attracts creative and innovative entrepreneurs. They want to live where their values are supported. They support the arts and historic preservation. They want their businesses on vibrant Main Streets.

We can meet their demands; we can attract the investment that provides new jobs, provided we don’t tear down our remaining charm! I understand the balance between preservation and growth. I also understand the inextricable link between the arts and the economy. Do the other candidates?

Jobs will help reduce crime, but our police department needs leadership, as well as ideas and resources to handle a growing problem. If our police chief lacks these qualities, change will be made. Our relationship with local government must be strengthened. We need greater transparency, opportunities to be involved in big decisions, and a sense of direction.

St. Petersburg’s successes have been defined by the height of our skyline. But development without better planning ignores the fundamentals. It leaves you without a voice in the process.

On election day, ask yourself, “Do we need another career politician or someone with real life experiences?” Please consider my achievements. Visit my website and learn how you can be part of making St. Petersburg a better place to live.

Thanks for reading this email. I look forward to your questions and hope for your support and vote.

John Warren

P.S. : Regarding the website.. We’re developing a great website, but it won’t be active for another 7-10 days.