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Political junkie

It's never too early: Scott joins the race

By Times staff writers
Published June 23, 2005

Hillsborough Commissioner Tom Scott is joining the ranks of people declaring themselves early as candidates for other offices.

Scott announced Wednesday that he will seek election - in March 2007 - to the District 2 at-large Tampa City Council seat currently held by Rose Ferlita. Ferlita is widely expected to run in 2006 for the Hillsborough Commission District 1 seat held by Kathy Castor, though she hasn't officially announced. Castor has officially announced her intention to seek the congressional seat Jim Davis is leaving, also in 2006. Davis is running for governor.

Scott must leave his District 3 seat on the County Commission in 2006 due to term limits. He has served for 10 years on the commission.

Wednesday, Scott said given those years of service, he can help improve the often sour relations between city and county governments while continuing work on issues he cares about.

"I think this is an opportunity to build on a relationship that already exists," he said. "I think there's a huge opportunity to bridge that gap."

He counts among those important issues improving transportation, redeveloping the Central Park public housing complex and working to create more affordable housing. He counts among his achievements as a commissioner creating a special taxing district to aid eastern Tampa, forming an affordable housing task force and organizing a clutter-cleaning campaign for his current district, which includes much of central and eastern Tampa.

Scott has said he considered a variety of options for what to do after he leaves the commission, including running for the Congressional seat Castor is seeking.

"Not taking anything away from people at the national or state level, but I believe the real public service is local," he said. "You just have more contact with people."

City Councilman Shawn Harrison, who currently holds the District 7 seat representing north Tampa, also has announced he will seek to replace Ferlita. He hasn't formally filed paperwork yet with the Supervisor of Elections.

"I like Tom. He's a friend," Harrison said. "It'll be a good, clean, issues-oriented campaign, and may the best man win."

A SONG FOR STORMS: This one goes out to ...

Mike Hiers,host of the Wednesday morning show Soundcheck on WMNF-88.5 FM, dedicated a song this week to Ronda Storms - in honor of the county commissioner's recent push to get gay pride displays banned from county libraries. Storms said earlier this month that she does not "want to have to explain to my daughter what it means to question one's sexuality."

Hiers played a live recording of Joanie the Jehovah's Witness, a song about a religious devotee who becomes a stripper.

"I think if Ronda could pass a law against showering in the nude, she would," Hiers told listeners before turning up the volume.

The Freak Show crew at WLLD-98.7 FM emptied their prize closet to listeners who came out of the closet on Wednesday morning's show. It didn't matter whether callers were actually gay or straight - if they proclaimed their homosexuality proudly on the air, they won free concert tickets or DVDs.

With the speed of a game show lightning round, listener after listener called up to say those two magic words: "I'm gay."

The Wild crew ended the segment with banter about making "F-You Ronda" T-shirts.

CASTOR PROVES POPULAR: Here's one quirky measure that the Hillsborough commission's gay pride controversy has gotten notice elsewhere.

Google keeps track of its top 10 gainers and losers each week among search terms. For the week of June 13, No. 8 on the list of gainers was the word "Castor," which got the attention of a writer for Canadian newspaper the National Post.

"Are people suddenly thirsty for castor oil, the rather nasty purgative that mothers of old used to force upon their gagging charges?" the writer asked. "Has Castor, the mythical Greek warrior demi-god and twin brother of Pollux, made an unexpected comeback?"

More likely, the writer suggested, controversy in Hillsborough spawned the search term's popularity. Commissioner Kathy Castor was the lone vote against a county ban on acknowledging gay pride.

"Did I beat Tom Cruise?" Castor said Wednesday when told of the list.

In fact, she did. Scientology as well.

FLOOD OF E-MAILS: Internet users are voicing their displeasure with the commission via e-mails from as far away as Britain and Holland. Commissioners' offices had logged upwards of 700 e-mails apiece, most expressing opposition to the commission's stance.

Obviously word is getting around through various blogs and other means through which interest groups keep tabs on issues of concern brewing around the nation. In the past couple of days, commissioners have been getting hammered with form e-mails, to the tune of more than 300 an hour. The county is tracking e-mails from Internet users who contact the county or commission offices through the "contact us" links on the county's Web site. Since June 9, a day after the flap began, the county Web site had received 1,451 e-mails on the topic, all but 98 opposed to the commission's stance.

Of the 98 expressing support of the commission's stance, 68 were received in the past two days, and many of them appeared to have similar or exact wording, suggesting that word is getting around among groups opposed to gay rights.

Staff writers Bill Varian, Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler and Kevin Graham contributed, as did researcher Carolyn Edds.

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 00:44:09]