Columns

Browning's expertise will serve state well

By C.T. BOWEN
Published December 17, 2006

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Growth in Pasco County's voter registration rolls from 1982 when Kurt Browning administered his first general election as elections supervisor and 2006 when Browning handled his 13th and final general election in Pasco. The number of registered voters increased 111 percent during that time.

There was a time, a decade or so ago, when people confused Kurt Browning and Peter Altman. Both were tall with toothy smiles and prematurely gray hair.

Even the chairman of Pasco's Democratic Party would mix up the wonder kids/public servants. That doesn't happen any longer. Browning switched to a modified buzz cut, then switched to the Republican Party in 2002. Altman left elected office two years later after losing his bid for re-election to the county commission.

Browning, too, is about to leave elected office, but he is remaining in public service and increasing his role administering election law. Thursday, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist tapped Browning as secretary of state overseeing the divisions of Elections, Corporations, and Cultural Affairs, the Office of Historical Resources and the state library and archives.

The diversity of the tasks ahead appealed to Browning, but his own performance as an elections supervisor appealed to Crist.

Browning's reputation for reporting accurate and complete election results in a timely manner garnered widespread attention just two years ago when Gov. Jeb Bush and then national pundits looked at Pasco's early returns and the 18,000-vote plurality for President George W. Bush and knew Florida was going to remain a red state.

For journalists facing deadline, there is no quality held in higher regard than a public servant who can produce accurate information while his counterparts struggle to count ballots. The propensity for being the first in the state to report election results sometimes didn't sit well with other election supervisors.

"It's just a game to you," some told Browning.

Of course it's a game, Browning retorted, and we're going to be first and we're going to be right.

Kurt Browning doesn't settle for second place or second guessing. His performance in office is beyond reproach. Contrast that to the cronyism and stock trading in the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office, or the misplaced absentee ballots that seem to surface nearly each election cycle in Pinellas.

And when somebody does criticize, Browning is quick to adjust. Just this year, some primary election voters feared the failure to affix additional postage would mean their ballots wouldn't get to the Supervisor of Elections Office on time.

For November, Browning added multiple notices with the absentee ballots about the need for 52 cents postage and, without public notice, opened an account at the Dade City post office to cover any shortages. The cost was less than $3 and it meant no complaints about ballots being returned to sender.

Friday was Browning's first day in the Dade City office since Dec. 1 back surgery. He worked the phones, accepted congratulations, worried about the transition and became emotional thinking about boxing up 30 years worth of memories.

Part of his new assignment will be changing the culture at the Secretary of State's office.

"We have to understand that we are in a supporting role. We have to understand the supervisors are not there for us, we are there for them."

He didn't mention it Friday, but recall Browning's exasperation last year over the state's handling of a local election complaint and you can understand his motivation for culture change.

At the time, the Florida Elections Commission - an independent agency that won't fall under Browning's bailiwick - dropped a complaint stemming from the activities by opponents of the Penny for Pasco campaign because the target simply ignored the commission's subpoena.

"It's wrong. I don't care who it is. The fact is, if there's an alleged violation, it needs to be followed up on," he said then.

Subtly, he'll need to change his own culture as well. We even joked about it on Friday. The public here is familiar with his wit and knows when he's fooling around because we are so comfortable with his personification of fairness. Yet, for several years, Browning served as the master of ceremonies for the Downtown Dade City Main Street's annual fundraiser - a reverse raffle in which people who did not win had their names called out publicly until only one ticket remained.

Browning saluted each unlucky contestant with a phrase that he'll have to drop from his vocabulary if he is to ensure elections are administered in an even-handed manner. Each year, Browning told hundreds of east Pasco's elite:

"You're a loser."

Maybe, but not this time. Think of it as rationing.

Pasco might be losing the exclusivity of an exemplary public servant, but it also is sharing one of its brightest attributes with the rest of the state.

[Last modified December 17, 2006, 01:11:36]