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SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLERCal Henderson's second-in-command builds a commanding lead at the polls, leaving retired FBI agent Lane Bonner far behind.
TAMPA - Hillsborough County is not Mayberry, but voters Tuesday went with the baby-faced homegrown candidate who has never strayed far from his childhood home in rural Lithia.
David Gee, who serves as second-in-command to retiring Sheriff Cal Henderson, quickly built a massive lead in the Republican primary over retired FBI agent Lane Bonner.
Technically, Gee faces write-in candidate William Godwin in November's general election. But write-ins almost never win, and Godwin, a tree surgeon from Mango, has another hurdle: a history of arrests dating back to 1975.
"If the trend continues this way, I'll be happy," said Gee, a 45-year-old husband and father of three, as he sat home watching the returns come in slowly.
Bonner, a Plant City Republican who headed the FBI's press office in Washington, D.C., before retiring in 1988, spent most of Tuesday doing an FBI background investigation as part of his post-retirement contract work. As returns came in Tuesday night, he washed dishes in the kitchen at First United Methodist Church in Plant City, where he had a party with the theme "Victory for Democracy."
"I guess I fought the machine, and the machine won," Bonner said. "But I'll tell you something, the voters can never claim they did not have an alternative. So I feel my run was worthwhile. I wish David well."
From the start, Gee had all the advantages: 27 years of experience in the agency he wants to lead, an affable personality and deep local ties that helped him raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There were few pressing issues debated between Gee and Bonner in recent months, after two other Republican candidates dropped out of the race.
The continued growth in unincorporated areas and the recent unionization of sheriff's deputies will be issues for the next sheriff. There's also pressure to diversify the ranks of deputies, in particular by hiring more Spanish speakers.
But all along, the biggest question looming over this race was whether anyone could beat Gee, considering his rising career within the Sheriff's Office and his impressive fundraising. By last week, he had raised close to $400,000, 40 times more than Bonner. That gave Gee the freedom to spend tens of thousands of dollars on fliers, mailed campaign material, signs, and sophisticated television commercials that looked like something out of the TV show Cops. Gee even opened a campaign headquarters on Kennedy Boulevard.
He leased the yellow brick building and covered it in red, white and blue signs proclaiming "David Gee for Sheriff" to all who drove by.
Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com