Recipients of the Tony Jannus Award, the Tampa Bay area's annual salute to a major figure in commercial aviation, usually follow a traditional script on award day.
They hand out prizes to local high-schoolers for aviation essays and scholarships to college students, give press interviews, appear at a lunch, then receive their award and speak at a fancy dinner reception.
Even busy airline executives such as Gordon Bethune of Continental Airlines, Southwest's Herb Kelleher and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic have gamely played along for the full day's activities.
Things will be different, however, with this year's winner. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will do a fly-by, appearing only for the dinner at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, where he will acknowledge scholarship winners as well as pick up his own award.
Newspapers and television reporters can cover his speech but won't be allowed to ask the secretary any questions. The event "was not intended as a media availability," a spokesman for Mineta said.
Why the low profile? It has been widely speculated that Mineta, a former congressman and commerce secretary, won't stay on even if Bush wins a second term. The only Democrat in the Cabinet, Mineta also reportedly doesn't like appearing at anything that could be construed as a campaign event.
He has, however, made himself available for questions in the last couple months to admire a short line railway in the battleground state of Iowa, a ferry terminal in Hawaii and the announcement of a highway expansion in Connecticut.
