The Political Whore

Bill Foster wasted no time in getting the Times recommendation on his website

The drumbeat that the St. Petersburg Times was considering an endorsement (errr, recommendation, as the Times will always let a candidate know its preferred term) of Bill Foster. On its surface, it seems ludicrous. After all, Foster is the same guy who wrote to the school board a few years back making a strong pitch against teaching Darwinian evolution alone in public schools, hoping it would mix in a bit of “intelligent design.”

But the lack of an emerging alternative to Foster left the Times in the inexplicable position of endorsing an anti-gay rights, anti-evolution mayor of St. Petersburg. More to the point, however, the editorial board chooses a candidate based on who will play ball with it. Which candidate will kiss the ring over on 1st Avenue S? That’s what gets you the recommendation. Disagree with the Times on a core concern at the paper — say, firing Police Chief Chuck Harmon, as Scott Wagman as vowed to do — and you are at a disadvantage, to say the least.

It is OK to disagree with the Times on social conservative issues, as long as you play your cards right, promise not to let those views play out in public policy at City Hall and generally keep your wingy-ness in the closet. After all, the Times’ former editorial chief, Phil Gailey, was totally tight with Rick Baker, who was also a social conservative who refused to recognize gay pride parades or appear in them.

From its recommendation today: Read the rest of this entry »

A quick roundup of all the ads airing in the St. Pete mayor’s race. First, Bill Foster’s ad:

Next, Scott Wagman’s from last week:
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With a hat tip to Peter Schorsch at his blog, it appears the St. Petersburg Times local politics blog Bay Buzz had a post late Wednesday, about St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Paul Congemi and an incident at a KFC restaurant. The post was subsequently pulled from the blog (and restored after further reporting on Thursday). But thanks to Google Reader (and Google is forever) the original can be shared here.
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Former St. Pete City Councilman Bill Foster got gigged a bit today as he was supposed to be getting good headlines on the formal launch of his mayoral campaign (he filed the paperwork in early February, so no surprise in terms of him running).

Foster’s news release about the launch twice misspelled the word “publicly,” as Cristina Silva in Bay Buzz pointed out:

Bill Foster to Publically (sic) Announce Candidacy for Mayor of St. Petersburg this Monday, March 2nd at Pioneer Park

St. Petersburg – Bill Foster, a former St. Petersburg City Councilman with a rich history of civic involvement, will publically (sic) announce his candidacy for Mayor of St. Petersburg Monday, March 2nd at 12:00 noon at Pioneer Park in downtown St. Petersburg ( 98 Beach Drive , across the street south of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, east of Bayfront Tower ).

The slogan, at least according to his new website, appears to be “Foster in a New Era.”

I vote instead for “Foster in a spell-checker.”

With the simple and unelaborated headline “Running for Mayor” on his personal website early this AM, the legislator shakes up the field drew some attention for St. Petersburg’s mayoral election later this year.

Will Kriseman announce he is running, after seeming like he wasn’t while awaiting a Ken Welch candidacy? Or is the headline prelude to his explanation that he won’t run?

UPDATE: It’s the second scenario from above. A source with knowledge of Kriseman’s decision says the representative is not running. Expect his website to add that info at some point today or tomorrow.

h/t to Jim Johnson.