The Political Whore

Why do I do this to myself? I get a call from perfectly nice people at the Greater Pinellas Democratic Club asking me to speak at one of their meetings (tonight at 6:30, to be precise) and I agree and then I am asked what topic, and I choose to speak on “Fixing Tampa Bay Politics.”

I should have opted for “Getting the Palestinians and Jews Together for Middle East Peace” instead. Tampa Bay politics are hopelessly damaged, so where do I even start?

You’ll have to attend to hear. And no, one of my suggestions will NOT be a plea for kumbaya-like bipartisanship or the like.

The social hour starts at 6 pm (let’s hope for the Club’s sake and listeners’ sakes that they’ve stocked a lot of vodka for me) and the meeting lasts until about 8 pm. It is at Banquet Masters in Pinellas Park, 8100 Park Boulevard. For reservations, call 727-360-3971.

Ready to run and Democratic? Two local consultants, Larry Biddle (a veteran of online fundraising and social networking in the Howard Dean presidential year) and Mitch Kates (who has won some big upsets in Tampa Bay, including Kevin Beckner’s and Mary Mulhern’s wins in Hillsborough) are offering a seminar on how to prepare to run and win.

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:

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Despite a well-coordinated Vote Local effort in Pinellas County by the local Democratic Party, Republicans nearly swept the down-ballot races even though Barack Obama carried the county.

So what happened? Did Vote Local fail?

Yes and no.

From a standpoint of getting local Democrats elected, yes, it failed. An underlying cause, however, is likely that the candidates, with a few exceptions, just weren’t that good or funded enough to be competitive. It also appears that there was not an overwhelming sentiment for change on the County Commission, despite the Jim Smith scandal last year. Where Vote Local had successes down ballot, in the apparent Hillsborough victory for Kevin Beckner and the Pinellas School Board seat captured by Nina Hayden, the candiates were energizing, articulate, good on camera and got the Democratic voters excited.

“Our job was not persuasion but just to convince people to vote the whole ballot,” said Larry Biddle, a Democratic consultant in St. Petersburg who worked on the Vote Local effort.

Vote Local did manage to increase voter participation down ballot in Pinellas, but only by a few percentage points in some of the races. Raw vote totals are more impressive: 14,000 more Pinellas voters cast ballots in the Supervisor of Elections race in 2008 than in 2004; 10,000 more voted in the County Commission District 3 race.

Nothing funnier than watching a bunch of down-ballot candidates flub their video promos. Actually, this is a pretty funny-effective video (disclosure: one of the Vote Local consultants, Larry Biddle, is the partner of Creative Loafing editor David Warner.)

Deb Clark’s decision to limit early voting in Pinellas County to just three locations has resulted in long lines and prompted widespread criticism, a partisan call for a grand jury investigation, and now the installation of “wait clocks” showing people waiting in hour-plus lines just how long it will take to discharge their democratic duties.

Jack Killingsworth, a Democrat running against Clark, sent out this news release today:

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After years of suffering through (and I’m being charitable here) misguided leadership, the Pinellas County Democrats may finally have their shit together. Witness Pinellas DEC Chairwoman Toni Molinaro’s well-aimed missile late yesterday that demanded local Republicans return contributions given by former GOP candidate Angelo Cappelli, who is facing charges in a banking scheme.

Molinaro wrote:

The $2,240 given to the Pinellas Republican Party by disgraced former candidate Angello Cappelli should be donated to charity, said local Democratic Party chair Toni Molinaro. She asks the Republicans, and its chairman Tony DiMatteo, to return the money.

Cappelli, a former wealth and investment adviser, is charged with first-degree grand theft and perjury.

Police say the one-time bank trust officer and failed State House District 52 candidate admitted stealing more than $100,000 from a client, keeping money intended for charity to pay off his own credit card bills and homeowner’s insurance.

Public records show that Cappelli gave the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee $1,000 on Jan. 26, 2006, $240 on Aug. 26, 2006 and an additional $1,000 on Feb. 2 of this year. Those contributions are reported on the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections website.

The St. Petersburg client from whom Cappelli is accused stealing died in February. The client’s will intended the money go to a local charity.

“The Republican Party should give the $2,240.00 it received from Cappelli to the Pinellas County Community Foundation since that is the charity that Cappelli tried to steal more than $100,000 from,” said Molinaro. “If we are going to rid our community of political corruption, the place to start is to return ill gotten gains.”

Unfortunately for the citizens of Pinellas County, we have a series of scandals with which to deal,” said Molinaro. “Pinellas Democrats intend to make political corruption one of the issues in the 2008 elections.” The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s office and a Grand Jury are looking into a questionable county land purchase involving Republican Property Appraiser Jim Smith and whether he received favorable treatment at the direction of Republican County Commission chairman Ronnie Duncan.

Leaving aside the issue of Cappelli being innocent until proven guilty (he’s reportedly confessed), Molinaro is not only morally right on target but strategically firing on all cylinders. The Pinellas GOP (like the national GOP) has a cleanliness problem that it needs to deal with. Ongoing arrests and scandals such as the Rep. Bob Allen solicitation for prostitution bust are only keeping that public perception alive.