Sheriff race not over next week, insists front-runner
By Times staff writers
Published August 27, 2004
Hillsborough sheriff candidate David Gee, front-runner in the Republican primary against retired FBI agent Lane Bonner, is not ready to celebrate if he wins Tuesday night. Technically, Gee said, the winner of the primary faces write-in candidate William Godwin, a 50-year-old tree surgeon from Mango, in the November general election.
"My wife wanted to have a party, but you know, I don't want that," Gee said. "You can't really have a victory celebration if you haven't officially won yet."
But the fact is, write-ins almost never win. And Godwin, who was in the county jail when he lost to retiring Sheriff Cal Henderson during the last election, has a history of arrests dating back to 1975. So whoever wins Tuesday can pretty much count on being Hillsborough's next sheriff.
But Gee insists he'll play it safe and do what's most familiar: go on patrol.
Instead of throwing a party or hanging out in his campaign headquarters on Kennedy Boulevard, he'll go out on calls like all the other deputies, he said.
"I figure I'll end it the way I started 27 years ago," Gee said. "In uniform, on the street."
Gee said he might stop by State Attorney Mark Ober's election night party later Tuesday evening - but only to lend Ober support in his re-election bid.
WHO'S RESPONSIBLE?: In a spate of recent attack ads, a group calling itself Floridians for Integrity in Government bashed Republican House candidate Bill Bunkley.
The viciousness of the ads infuriated Bunkley, who is trying to unseat a fellow Republican in District 47, incumbent Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa. But no one was more surprised than a devoted Democrat from Pensacola: well-known trial attorney Robert Kerrigan.
Kerrigan, you see, founded Floridians for Integrity in Government three years ago. Far from getting involved in GOP politics, Kerrigan wanted to combat Gov. Jeb Bush.
George Bush's disputed presidential victory in 2000 made Kerrigan even more determined to get the opposition's word out.
"We saw Florida going to hell in a handcart," he said.
Kerrigan, a lead attorney in Florida's successful case against the tobacco industry, wants to know how such a big mistake could occur. Clearly no one in Tallahassee checked, or raised a red flag, when Tampa Bay developer Benton Murphey filed papers creating yet another Floridians for Integrity in Government. The group was identified this week as a front for the Florida Home Builders Association.
The industry is targeting candidates perceived as close to outgoing House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City. Association lobbyist Richard Gentry says the new group is an outgrowth of People for Integrity in Government, and that he didn't know the name already existed.
Kerrigan, who had never heard of Ambler or Bunkley before this, said he suspects the home builders wanted to create a smokescreen to hide their negative campaigning.
Often popping up just before elections, the origins of so-called 527 political action committees can be hard to trace. In fact, Bunkley thought Kerrigan was responsible for the negative ads before being told otherwise by a St. Petersburg Times reporter.
Kerrigan just wants it cleared up.
"I"m puzzled on how this can happen, and I'm very puzzled about how they (the home builders) just happened to get our identical name," he said. "It sounds to me like they tried to avoid getting discovered in the first go-around.
WELCOME TO GENDER INSECURITY: Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman needs help getting in touch with his feminine side.
At a land use meeting on Tuesday, Norman pointed out that four of seven county commissioners now are female. And women serve as county administrator and attorney.
"We need another committee," he said, generating a touch of laughter in a sparsely populated room. "I want a status of guy committee formed, if that's okay."
Some would say such a committee has existed for years.
It's called the good ol' boys club.
Times staff writers Josh Zimmer, Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler and Letitia Stein contributed to this report.
