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Letter to the editor

Chamber steps into politics

The St. Petersburg chamber forms a PAC, hosts Mel Martinez and plans to do more.

By HELEN HUNTLEY
Published August 15, 2007

While other business groups grabbed the limelight, the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce once preferred a background role, never endorsing a candidate.

No more. The chamber has decided it's time to flex some political muscle. For starters, it has established a political action committee to pool chamber member contributions and direct financial support to political candidates with pro-business positions.

"We want to make sure that business is represented," chairman Jim Albright said Tuesday as he introduced Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. (see story, page 1A), to about 125 Tampa Bay business leaders gathered in St. Petersburg.

Albright couldn't resist bragging a bit, noting that in the past 16 months, the chamber also has hosted the president and the governor. He said the group also hopes to bring in Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink before the end of the year.

Tuesday's session, held at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, was a chance to ask Martinez about immigration, housing and other issues. Martinez requested the meeting, Albright said.

Expect more politicians to be calling the chamber. The group this year formed a separate corporation called the St. Pete Chamber Political Action Committee (PAC) Inc. to endorse state and local candidates and contribute to their campaigns.

"We lost a lot of our relevancy by not being as proactive as we should have been in the past," Albright said. The new PAC will kick off fundraising in the next few weeks and make its first endorsements in the general election for St. Petersburg City Council.

Albright said the PAC, which he heads, will be bipartisan. It plans to support candidates who support the chamber's business and quality-of-life agenda, he said. In addition to traditional business issues such as taxes and economic development, the chamber is focusing on homelessness, affordable housing and health care.

Albright said the increased focus on public policy has helped reinvigorate the chamber membership, which has grown to more than 2,500 members.

[Last modified August 14, 2007, 23:05:08]