Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Political Junkie

Challengers nip at heels of top Democratic dog

By Will Van Sant
Published October 25, 2006

HELM CHALLENGERS EMERGE: Some do love the guy, but others say he's a blight on the Pinellas Democratic Party. Now, challengers are emerging to unseat chairman Ed Helm in this December's party elections.

Toni Molinaro, 37, confirmed Monday that she'll be mounting a campaign to end Helm's reign.

"It's just been chaos," Molinaro, who lives in St. Petersburg, said. "This organization needs to be mended. And I don't see him in any capacity trying to mend it."

This month, Helm sacked Molinaro from a job managing the party's Web site and replaced her with a handpicked appointee.

Critics say her removal was part of a pattern of dismissals by Helm aimed at quashing potential rivals and those he feels are ideologically impure.

Molinaro says her goal is to transform the local party into a force that's actually relevant come election time.

"Democrats will get elected in spite of the DEC," she said. "We want to become an organization that helps them get elected."

ET TU, ROCHE? In something of a shocker, Norm Roche, former County Commission contender and frequent Helm defender, says he is mulling a run to unseat Helm.

Roche was among the slate of "real Democrats" Helm backed during the primaries.

"I've been asked by many folks to consider it," Roche said. "It's an important job and we clearly need some new leadership to get this party back in the game."

MISSING VOTES? The Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay, a local watchdog organization, has gotten what the group calls troubling records from the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Office.

The records indicate that during the Sept. 5 primary, 25 of the 376 Pinellas voting precincts could not reconcile the number of voters who signed in to vote and the number of ballots recorded by the machines.

For instance, in Precinct 160 in St. Petersburg, 615 voters signed in to vote, but only 490 ballots were recorded.

In North Redington Beach's Precinct 417, there were 71 more recorded votes than voters. And in St. Petersburg's Precinct 129, there were 31 fewer recorded votes than voters.

"If you have more voters than votes, this could mean a machine malfunction that deleted votes," said alliance president Pamela Haengel. "More votes than voters? It might mean ballot stuffing, whether accidental or intentional."

Nancy Whitlock, a spokeswoman for the elections office, says the discrepancies don't worry her.

"It's common," Whitlock said. "Often people will sign the register book and for whatever reason decide not to vote. And sometimes people forget to sign the register."

NAACP TO HOLD CANDIDATE FORUMS: The African-American Voter Research and Education Committee and the St. Petersburg NAACP will hold a candidates forum at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S. Pinellas School Board candidates are among those expected to attend.

A member of the Pinellas County Charter Review Commission will also be on hand to answer questions about proposed charter amendments that are the focus of a lawsuit involving the county and a coalition of Pinellas cities.

The Clearwater/Upper Pinellas County Branch of the NAACP will also host a candidates forum Thursday night. It's scheduled for 6:30 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, 1201 Douglas St. in Clearwater.

Congressional candidates Phyllis Busansky and Samm Simpson, as well as state House District 50 hopeful Ed Hooper, are among those expected to attend.

[Last modified October 25, 2006, 08:52:22]