A parade of candidates draws scant attention

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© St. Petersburg Times
published February 7, 2003

TAMPA The universe around us, in its mysterious way, provides for the human appendix, Brussels sprouts, the designated hitter and many other things of questionable value. In this same way, it has endowed us with seven (seven!) seats on the Tampa City Council, all of which the weary voters will be obligated to fill on March 4.

Some municipalities show mercy. They foist upon the people only a few races at a time in the wonderfully named ritual of "staggered" elections. Not so Tampa -- it is the whole shebang in a single go every four years. The city bristles with council candidates. You cannot buy a cup of coffee or pop into the supermarket without running into one.

Besides the community radio station WMNF-FM 88.5, which deserves good words for the air time it is providing to city candidates, it is hard to find hotbeds of citizens who cry out for their presence. One exception is the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa, which on Thursday held its second council forum, this one for the hopefuls in Districts 4, 5, 6 and 7. (The citywide races in Districts 1, 2 and 3 were covered in an earlier forum.)

All of this matters to Tampa, and is of at least passing interest to the outside world, for two reasons:

(1) This new council will be a post-Dick Greco body with a chance to assert a new role vis-a-vis the "strong" mayor. Other councils in our region that are still learning how to operate under a strong-mayor government (ahem) should take great note.

(2) The council races themselves, arguably, could affect Tampa's high-profile mayor's race, which surely will require a runoff to settle. As a smart friend explains to me, a close district race in South Tampa might bring out more voters in a runoff for Pam Iorio, while a tight runoff race in East Tampa might benefit, say, Bob Buckhorn, who has spent years tending the grass roots there.

District 4, South Tampa, has three candidates seeking to replace Linda Saul-Sena, who is running for a citywide council seat. They are John Dingfelder, a veteran of community and Democratic activities; Clay Phillips, former district director for U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa; and Gene Wells, a neighborhood association president and former candidate for the County Commission.

District 5, East Tampa, has five: Ali Akbar, Andrew Baker, Luis Ruiz, Kevin White and Bernadine White-King. This district, which typically has elected an African-American member, is being vacated by Gwen Miller who also is seeking a citywide council seat. Akbar and White were the only candidates at Thursday's forum.

District 6, Central Tampa, is now represented by Mary Alvarez, who is seeking re-election. Her challenger is Joe Redner, best known -- how else? -- as an adult business owner who often does legal battle with the city. Mindful of this, his campaign brochure bears the headline: "Joe Redner is MORE than an adult club owner."

Lastly, in District 7, covering the city's northern end and New Tampa, Shawn Harrison is seeking re-election. His only opponent is write-in candidate Kim Coljohn, who sported a baseball cap and Jimmy Buffett shirt as a refreshing break in the parade of suits. No, wait, Redner wasn't wearing one either.

It would be ungracious of me to describe most of the candidates as "stiff," but, given mayoral candidate Frank Sanchez's recent spasm of flop-sweat, the lot of them looked terrified of making a mistake. None would touch the live-wire question on which Sanchez had foundered (about the all-male Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla) save Redner, who promised, deadpan, never to do anything that excluded women.

Actually, Redner had most of the best lines. Somebody asked about the drunken nuisances of the Gasparilla celebration. Everybody who answered tried to make nice, trying to appease neighborhoods while not ticking off the party-lovers. Redner answered flatly: "It's Gasparilla. Take it or leave it."

I also laughed at Coljohn's answer to a question about what each candidate would want to do most, if given only a single four-year term in office. He turned to his incumbent opponent, Harrison, and said: "You already had your turn." Watch the papers and listen to the candidates the next few weeks.

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