Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

This time around, send a Republican

By WILL VAN SANT
Published July 19, 2006

In 2002, when the national Republican Party's site selection committee had its eye on Tampa for the 2004 GOP convention, Pinellas leaders met with the group at the Don CeSar Beach Resort. in St. Pete Beach.

Democratic County Commissioner Ken Welch was the county's representative. The selection committee was a pretty partisan bunch, Welch recalls, and the experience proved a little uncomfortable.

So when the committee returns in August as it considers Tampa for the 2008 convention, Welch, now the commission chairman, has tapped his vice chair Ronnie Duncan, a Republican, to do the honors.

Welch wishes his fellow board member better luck than he had.

"It's not about red or blue," he said. "It's about green. Having the GOP convention here would be a big boost to our tourism economy."

JEB AS DONOR: Gov. Jeb Bush may think he should be appointing people to those 55 newly created judgeships, rather then allowing voters to pick their favorites.

But he's still willing to play in judicial races.

In June he sent $25 to the campaign of Pinellas county judge candidate Susan Bedinghaus, an assistant attorney general, former Jeb appointee to the local judicial nominating committee and wife of ex-Pinellas GOP chairman Paul Bedinghaus.

No, it's not a hefty check. But then, after two terms, the governor's net worth isn't what it used to be.

BAD TIMING: Brian Flaherty, a Republican seeking the District 48 State House seat and chairman of the Pinellas County Housing Authority, is a defendant in a lawsuit being handled by attorney Darryl Rouson, former president of the St. Petersburg NAACP.

The other defendant is Thomas Pavilglianti, who rents a property on Cleveland Street in Clearwater that Flaherty owns.

Two other Flaherty renters, Robert Hedgeman and Rolanda Lawrence, claim their neighbor Pavilglianti spat in Lawrence's face, hurled racial slurs at the couple and threatened to kill them and their guests. They are seeking $15,000 in damages.

Flaherty employs Pavilglianti as a maintenance man and the lawsuit contends that he knew or should have known about his tenant's hostile and threatening actions.

What does Flaherty have to say about all this?

Not much.

Flaherty didn't return numerous phone calls from the Times but did fax a statement saying he knew nothing of the alleged harassment and would not tolerate such behavior by a tenant.

"As soon as I knew of the alleged offensive conduct I took immediate legal action to evict the offending tenant. I am proud of my accomplished history of serving the needy, regardless of their race, in our community," he wrote.

TEACHERS LOVE EVERYBODY: When it comes to the U.S. House race in District 9, the national teachers' union is two-timing.

Back in May, when Republican Gus Bilirakis' campaign staked claim to the teachers' endorsement, Phyllis Busansky's staff said that the Democrat had also been promised official backing - causing a flurry of confusion.

The NEA Fund for Children and Schools, the national teachers' union, had taken the unusual step of backing both candidates, with dual endorsements and matching $2,500 contributions.

Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, said after a weeklong candidate review, the local advised their folks in Washington to back Bilirakis AND Busansky, given that both candidates faced primary challenges at the time. (Busansky's Democratic opponents have since dropped out of the race.)

It's rare for the NEA to support opposing candidates.

A review of the group's FEC filings filed turned up just one other House race - Nebraska District 3 - in which $2,500 was given to two candidates. (There were a handful of contributions to competing Senate candidates.)

Had two-timing not been an option, Moore said the Pinellas committee would have urged Washington to side with Bilirakis, whose "courageous and principled stand" against Gov. Bush's voucher program earned him awards from education advocates.

Though "a great candidate," Moore said Busansky had a thinner record on education issues.

SKANDERA OUT: Richard Skandera, the University of Central Florida student who threw his hat in the ring as a Democratic challenger for Susan Latvala's District 4 County Commission seat, has withdrawn from the race.

"I just don't have any money," said the 19-year-old, who plans to return to school.

But Skandera's political dreams are not dead. He says he plans to run for state Sen. Mike Fasano's seat in 2008.

Staff writers Adam C. Smith, Tamara El-Khoury, Robin Stein and Will Van Sant contributed to this week's Junkie. For more political buzz, go to www.sptimes.com/blogs/buzz. Staff members can be contacted at politicaljunkie@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 18, 2006, 20:13:55]