Local Republican activist wants to set record straight
By Times staff writers
Published November 11, 2004
Throughout the campaign season, one veteran of recent local political wars was notably quiet: Sam Rashid.
In past elections, Rashid has been among the more closely watched Republican campaign activists and strategists. The east county businessman has given generously of his time and money to help several politicians claim or keep jobs, with considerable success and resulting media attention.
He handed out plenty of money this year but otherwise kept a lower profile. That made an e-mail Rashid sent to a Times reporter this week particularly interesting.
Rashid objected to a paragraph in a recent political story. It noted that another east county Republican campaign activist, Ralph Hughes, has now contributed to six of the seven Hillsborough County commissioners who will be seated as of next week.
The observation about Hughes was made in the context that candidates who received much of their money from development interests prevailed in the Nov. 2 elections. Hughes runs a company that supplies precast concrete parts to the building industry, and he opposes fees tacked on to new development meant to help pay for growth.
You might say that Rashid and Hughes are not fond of each other.
"Great article on Sunday but you may want to get your facts straight before you give credit where credit is not due," Rashid wrote. "The fact is that Ralph Hughes had absolutely nothing (strategically) to do with either Ken Hagan, Mark Sharpe or Brian Blair's campaigns."
He's referring to the three commission victors he himself supported. And that was his parenthetical insertion.
In particular, Rashid said Hughes backed an opponent of Hagan's two years ago and gave Hagan only token money this time. And Hughes has had little to do with Blair after heavily backing him two years ago, Rashid contends.
"While he was Blair's largest contributor and de facto campaign chief in his first losing race against Pat Frank, he had nothing to do with him for 8 months after he declared his... candidacy (this time)," Rashid wrote. (And that's our parenthetical insertion.) "It was only after our team got involved in Blair's race against (Democrat Bob) Buckhorn that Hughes gave him a token amount of monetary support."
He said proper credit is due to Mike Corcoran, a political consultant and former aide to House Speaker Johnnie Byrd. He describes Corcoran as the architect of every successful local race in Hillsborough County.
That may provide a little fodder for people wondering whether the incoming 5-2 Republican supermajority will be singing Kumbaya in, say, six months.
IN HONOR OF LOCAL DEMOCRATS: Speaking of singing Kumbaya, the commission pretty much did Wednesday in giving their formal sendoffs to Democrats Jan Platt and Pat Frank. Platt is leaving the commission after 24 years due to term limits. Frank won election as Clerk of the Circuit Court.
County staff paid tribute to both in video montages. Platt's was particularly interesting, playing on her nickname, Commissioner No, airing a succession of such votes. At one point, the video showed a clerk having trouble getting the automated vote counting system to record her vote.
"Because it's a yes," Platt said on the video.
Commissioner Kathy Castor got choked up after reciting a list of Platt's many accomplishments, from the creation of a land conservation program to preserving the Friendship Trail Bridge.
"You're not Commissioner No. You're Commissioner No Nonsense," Castor said. "Your legacy to the community is so vast."
Commissioners Jim Norman and Tom Scott, who've mixed it up with Frank plenty in her six years on the board, praised her Wednesday. She seemed genuinely taken aback.
"Gosh, I feel as though I should be lying down instead of sitting up," she said.
Commissioner Ronda Storms praised both for the political skills she's learned from them, and jokingly lamented the loss of two women on the board and their replacement by two men.
"We'll be drowning in testosterone soon," she said.
Tampa City Council membe r John Dingfelder, sitting in attendance, asked for permission to speak and cited Platt in particular as a role model. When he asked to speak, Storms asked him: "You're not going to pray, are you?" It was a reference to his invitation earlier this year to have an atheist give his board's invocation.
Platt, who kept from being choked up, encouraged citizens not to poke fun at their public officials, but to speak out nonetheless. She asked the commissioners she is leaving to continue struggling with the balancing act that is growth management.
"Thank you for being patient with me," she said.
PERSONAL LOAN HELPS CAMPAIGN: As the campaign for Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections entered the home stretch, there was much to make Buddy Johnson feel confident. He had incumbency and the name recognition that goes with it. He had media exposure day after day as journalists covered the phenomenon of early voting. His opponent, Eckerd Corp. computer programmer Rob MacKenna, was an unknown, attracting only about $1 in contributions for every $3 flowing into Johnson's coffers.
Still, Johnson was nervous.
Appointed to the job last year after Pam Iorio quit to run for Tampa mayor, Johnson, 52, had been out of politics since the mid 1990s, when he served three terms in the Florida House. Johnson also suffered some image problems coming out of the August primary, when his computer servers slowed to a crawl during tabulation and when 245 votes were lost after a staffer left an early voting machine in "test" mode.
"I felt I still had to get my message out," Johnson said of the waning days of his campaign.
So on October 20, he loaned his campaign $10,000. Six days later, he loaned the campaign another $10,017. The money paid for a TV ad featuring Johnson, which ran on local cable stations in the last week of the campaign.
"My consultant said it worked," Johnson said this week. "It probably helped move the race three points."
Johnson easily defeated MacKenna 56.22 to 43.78 percent. With the help of the two personal loans, Johnson also outspent his opponent $84,229 to $29,452.
But Johnson, who lists his net worth as $616,500, said writing personal checks for the loans was no picnic.
"I'm not wealthy wealthy," said Johnson, a co-founder of the BuddyFreddys homestyle buffet restaurants, which he sold out of several years ago.
With his victory, Johnson gets the gravy: the elections job, a four-year term and a paycheck of $119,684 annually.
Contact Bill Varian at 813 226-3387 or varian@sptimes.com Staff writer Jeff Testerman contributed to this report.