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Commission candidates are a grand old paradox

Two Republicans want oneCounty Commission seat. And that's about where the similarities end.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published May 5, 2006

Next to her sat Ralph Hughes, unofficial Republican power broker.

Hughes has been known to make or break candidates. Now, Ferlita felt, he was testing her. He wanted to see whether he could influence her votes if she won.

He couldn't, she told him.

"If I'm going to be sitting up on that dais and doing what some power broker wants me to, as opposed to what the people elected me to do, that's not the job I'm applying for," she said later.

Ferlita's closest opponent, Brad Swanson, faced Hughes over brunch at the Cracker Barrel on Interstate 4. He came away with a different impression.

Hughes just wanted to get to know him "as a person," said Swanson, who's making his first bid for office.

"I will always share my opinion with you, Brad," he recalled Hughes saying. "But you use your own judgment."

Hughes' support didn't come with strings attached, Swanson said.

"I have yet to meet a core conservative who thinks like that," Swanson said. "These are the people who work very hard to make this country better."

Hughes, who could not be reached for comment, decided to back Swanson.

The way that Ferlita and Swanson each dealt with Hughes shows how different the two Republican candidates are. Both want to replace Kathy Castor, who is running for Congress, on the County Commission in a district that spans Apollo Beach, South Tampa and Town 'N Country.

Also running in the Republican primary in September is community activist Gary Santti, who has little name recognition and has raised only $150. Two Democrats also are running for the seat, as Deborah Cope has announced she's dropping out of the race.

Ferlita, 60, is a seven-year veteran of the Tampa City Council. She's also an experienced small-business woman who has run a pharmacy, Rose Drugs, since 1984.

Ferlita is a Tampa native, and her last name carries weight in the community. People still remember her father, Joseph Ferlita, giving free bread to customers at the height of the Depression, she said. Political observers call her the front-runner.

At 34, Swanson is a political novice who moved to Tampa in 1994. He worked as vice president of public affairs for two years for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. He also was president of the New Tampa Republican Club for two years.

He's embarrassed to admit he's a geek but he surrounds himself with a laptop, cell phone, BlackBerry, 250-megabyte USB flash drive and a digital pen that records handwriting motion.

He's sitting on much less campaign money than Ferlita - about $62,000 to her $218,000. Still, he has powerful allies. Power brokers Hughes and Sam Rashid are behind him, as is County Commissioner Ken Hagan. Swanson volunteered on Hagan's campaign, he said.

Swanson already is positioning himself as the "family values" candidate.

"I'm a Christian and not afraid to admit it," he volunteered near the start of an interview. "I think my values and principles go with me every day; my faith is with me every day."

That was one of the things Hughes wanted to know about him, he said: "We talked about core conservative issues like controlling the budget, and family values."

Swanson is married with two children, Emma, 4, and Olivia, 1. He will take Emma with him when he walks the district, he said.

Ferlita, who has no children and has not married, has three dogs. On special occasions, she dresses one of them, Murray, in a T-shirt that says, "Vote for my mom."

Although she is a practicing Catholic - she once walked out on an atheist invocation at a City Council meeting - she says she doesn't like to mix religion and politics.

"I've got my convictions and my beliefs," she said, "but as soon as you get on that dais, you should leave your convictions at the end of it."

Yet she bristles at the suggestion that her opponent has a corner on conservative social values.

"Because my family values may look different from his doesn't mean that my family values are less credible than his," she said.

Ferlita was asked about rumblings that Swanson's camp will run a negative campaign against her. "Rumblings?" she said. "More like thunder ... So many people have told me, 'This is going to be the worst mudslinging campaign against you in the history of Hillsborough County politics.' "

But Swanson said he won't run a negative campaign.

"My God, I would hope not," he said.

Instead, he said, he plans to stick to his issues. Among them, a "rabid focus on reducing the size of government."

If elected, he said, "I will work extremely hard to decrease the size of the budget and to decrease fees."

Ferlita's No. 1 issue, she said, is responding to the growth of gangs and poverty. Managing growth is high on her list, too.

But she said she won't promise to automatically vote down every increase in the budget or fees.

"There are sometimes situations where you have to consider increases," she said. "You're shirking your responsibility if you automatically say, 'I'm never going to raise taxes. I'm never going to raise fees. I'm just going to stand here and pose as a fiscal conservative.' "

Swanson said he sees himself as the underdog in the race. Ferlita "is definitely the Goliath in this situation," he said.

Ferlita said she's looking forward to a lively race. That's why she chose to run for the County Commission in the first place, she said. "I try to make everything I do not very boring."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 5, 2006, 08:33:38]