Not only did Brian Aungst lose in the countywide race, he was not able to carry Clearwater voters, despite his apparent city popularity.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published September 4, 2004
CLEARWATER - Once favored across the county, Mayor Brian Aungst didn't even win his own city in Tuesday's Republican primary for Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court, unofficial precinct totals show.
First-time candidate Ken Burke beat Aungst by about 900 votes in Clearwater, and by more than 9,000 votes overall. Aungst carried his own Countryside precinct by just five votes.
Other neighborhoods in Clearwater, including Morningside, North Greenwood and Island Estates, picked Burke, who won the city with 56 percent of the vote.
Burke won countywide among Republican voters by 58 percent to 42 percent.
"Some people in Clearwater called me and said, "I don't like the mayor and I want to help you out,"' said Burke, 44. "I said, "Welcome aboard.' "
Aungst was disappointed, but said the loss was unrelated to his popularity as mayor. The jobs are too different, he said.
"This has no indication on what's going on in the city at all," said Aungst, who thanked his supporters.
Aungst, 50, had raised twice as much money as Burke during the campaign and had the endorsement of dozens of local officials. Burke, a certified public accountant, relied on his qualifications and his close ties to the community.
In the end, Burke's grassroots blitz triumphed.
"My biggest handicap is that I had two other full-time jobs," said Aungst, who works for BrightHouse Networks and is mayor. "We were out there a lot - maybe he was out there a little more."
Still, Aungst's political fall is startling. In 1999, he defeated three-term mayor Rita Garvey in a four-way race after Garvey pleaded guilty to drunken driving. Three years later, Aungst was re-elected mayor without opposition, the first time that had happened since 1956.
"Brian stirred up a dead city," said John Wiser, a Countryside civic leader who supported Aungst. "He has done wonderful things in this city."
Mary Repper, a retired political consultant who ran Aungst's successful 1999 mayoral campaign, said Aungst was complacent after his easy re-election. Though the mayor disagreed, Repper said Aungst minimized his opponent this time around.
"It was a total underestimation of the race he was in," said Repper, who supported Aungst during the clerk's campaign. "The fact that he didn't have a race for mayor was probably the worst thing for him. A race would have prepared him for this battle. Instead, he was soaring.
"But he didn't see someone was soaring next to him," Repper said.
Burke banked on party support as well as a network of colleagues across the county. Aungst, who is relatively new to party politics, noted that many Clearwater supporters couldn't vote in the Republicans-only primary.
As many as 40 people switched parties to help Aungst's campaign, he said, but it wasn't enough.
"We knew he was a serious opponent, but we weren't going to say that," Aungst said.
In the months before the election, Burke campaign signs started to appear across Clearwater. Pat Carlisle, who placed a sign outside his Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard insurance business, said his support wasn't anti-Aungst.
Carlisle, 55, has spent most of his life in Clearwater, but wasn't about to base his decision on city loyalties.
"I don't know Brian. But I know he was a sportscaster and then he became the mayor," said Carlisle, president of Carlisle Fields & Company. "Unless he has a lot of other qualifications, I don't see how that makes a clerk of the court."
On Island Estates, Aungst received 37 percent support. On Clearwater Beach, it was 34 percent.
"I hope he might learn something from this," said former commissioner Art Deegan, who himself was beaten soundly in a bid for re-election in 1995 and supported Burke in this race. "He started lobbying for this clerk's job over a year and a half ago, much too early."
Aungst also lost the southeast corner of the city, where he did not receive more than 40 percent of the vote. In a precinct bordered by Keene and Belcher roads on the east and west, and Belleair and Lakeview roads to the north and south, Burke beat Aungst two-to-one. The majority of the mayor's support came in the Countryside area of Clearwater, as well as a precinct between Saturn and Hercules avenues north of Cleveland Street. "I think it's very easy to draw the conclusion if he didn't carry Clearwater that he's really a bad mayor," said Wayne Garcia, a political consultant who helped on Aungst's campaign. "But that's not right. When you're going for a different office, all bets are off. Being mayor of Clearwater and being clerk of the court are night and day different."
Aungst will resign his mayor's seat Jan. 2, 2005, when he would have filled the clerk's position. Because of term limits, he is prevented from seeking a third term. So far, only Vice Mayor Frank Hibbard has said he would run for Aungst's seat. Two other seats, now held by council members Bill Jonson and Hoyt Hamilton, are also up in the March city election.
With Tuesday's defeat behind him, Aungst said he plans on focusing on his final months as mayor. He did not say if he intends to run for political office again.
Wiser, the Countryside civic leader, said despite being a known entity, Aungst had an uphill battle in any geography against Burke.
"He's not the accountant-type to fit in the clerk's seat," Wiser said. "It was the wrong office for Brian. If Brian ran for something like County Commission, he'd probably win by 10 points."
