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.

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City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern has put green jobs on her board’s monthly workshop agenda for this Thursday. Details for those who want to attend are on the jump:

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Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern has an itch for a little civic green-thumbing. Mulhern has organized a community meeting for the hundreds of people she says have contacted her since she raised the idea of the city doing more community gardening.

It will be held Feb. 21 at Sweetwater Organic Community Farm in Tampa. (details below)

Mulhern said, “”Community gardens have been springing up in U.S. cities of all sizes in recent years. Issues such as food security, high cost of fuel, health and environmental benefits are making the idea of growing food locally attractive and likely to be essential in the near future.”

Here is Mulhern’s news release:

Tampa, Fla. (February 10, 2009) – Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern is hosting a community meeting on February 21, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. at Sweetwater Organic Community Farm. Since holding a public discussion meeting in October of 2008 in Tampa City Council Chambers, Councilwoman Mulhern has heard from and met with hundreds of area residents interested in participating in community gardening. Many organizations are already working on community garden projects in the city of Tampa, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

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Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern has been leading an effort to expand the representation of the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission board (currently made up of only county commissioners) to include the cities as well. Two weeks ago, Mayor Pam Iorio attempted to short-circuit that effort by writing to local legislators and letting them know that she, not the City Council or Mulhern, speaks for the “City of Tampa” and that she doesn’t support messing around with the EPC.

And if Mayor Pam is against something, you know it won’t be long before the Tribune’s editorial page weighs in on Herroner’s side. So came the editorial this weekend,

Mulhern has responded and shared a copy of her letter to the Trib with PoHo. She raises several valid points overlooked by the Trib:

The recent conduct of the EPC board evidences the problems inherent in a regulatory board overseeing itself. With the board made up exclusively of County Commissioners, a conflict arises when the agency wishes to bring an action against the county.

Mulhern’s full response is posted after the break.

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Tampa City Council member Mary Mulhern sent along a copy of an e-mail she sent to a Republican friend of hers who took offense to comments she made and that I reported here.

The message goes:

Please note that Wayne Garcia implied that I was referring to Republicans as dementors. I did not talk about Republicans at all. I was referring to the moral challenges of the decisions and positions we take as elected officials and how truly bad they can be.  I did not mention parties, names or even issues. Frankly I am as frustrated with some local Democrats as I am with Republicans. Political writers tend to reduce everything to partisan factions, but I did not talk about parties at all, other than to say that I read much after the last Presidential election (not Harry Potter) and learned from the Republican local organization of the past 30 years and want to see Democrats emulate them. I tend to speak off the cuff but I really don’t think I said anything directly against Republicans or that was incivil toward anyone. If I did, I did not mean to.

I am a  Democrat, but I have much respect for and many friendships with Republicans. I am even becoming friends with my former opponent Rose Ferlita and have been very impressed with her independence on the County Commission.

For Democrats in Tampa, where an ultraconservative GOP machine ran them out of power a decade ago, there is hope indeed. A recent Democracy for America training session in Ybor City drew more than 100 grassroots activists, the largest DFA has ever had. The local Democratic Party, the victim of infighting for years, has settled down so much that it reinstated its Jefferson-Jackson Dinner two weekends back, drawing more than 260 people and raising thousands of dollars for their coffers.

The strongest signal to date that the Dems are serious about challenging the Republican power structure here may just have occurred during lunchtime today.

More than 40 progressive businesspeople gathered at Mise en Place near downtown and heard how Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern went from a part-time art critic for CL to an incumbent killer in under five years.

“We won by being smart and organized,” Mulhern said of her spring victory over incumbent Shawn Harrison. “We just worked.” And she appealed to the crowd of 30- and 40-something attorneys, business owners and other professionals by talking about things they can do to help Democrats win: contribute their marketing expertise to local campaigns or give money early.

“Before the primary, give money to local people. They really need it,” Mulhern said. “If you give $100 to Barack Obama, who’s going to really notice. But if you give $100 to Lee Nelson [running against Republican Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson], how many pieces of mail will that send out?”

Mulhern also said she looks to an unusual source for political inspiration: her recent reading of the final Harry Potter book. She commended its message of good triumphing after years of setbacks and defeats in a world filled with some really bad characters.

“There is evil out there,” Mulhern said. “There are death eaters. There are dementors.”

There are even Republican county commissioners who want to gut wetlands rules and discriminate against gays and lesbians. But she didn’t mention them. By name.

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