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Busansky serving up another big idea

By SUE CARLTON
Published January 11, 2008

phyllis! her campaign bumper stickers said the last time she ran, which is pretty much Phyllis Busansky to a T. She's a tall woman and an undeniable presence in a room - big voice, big mane of hair, big jewelry, big ideas.

The latest big idea being that Busansky, who served two terms as a Hillsborough County commissioner and ran but didn't make it to Congress, will soon jump into the race for Hillsborough supervisor of elections against the headline-making Buddy Johnson.

Run, Phyllis, run, some people have been saying lately, people who want a Democrat with a name to take on a Republican looking vulnerable.

"There's a good chance," Busansky is saying, for now. "But I haven't made up my mind."

Maybe in the old days, that job would have been too boring for Busansky, known for championing big-minded causes like indigent health care. But things sure changed in the face of voting troubles in this country; elections supervisors are no longer quiet, behind-the-scenes caretakers.

Things definitely haven't been quiet for Johnson, who was first appointed to the job by then-Gov. Jeb Bush back in 2003.

News stories have detailed turnover in his office, how he dealt (or didn't deal) with a citizens group trying to get a controversial initiative on the ballot, how he moved two polling places without written notice to voters. Last month the secretary of state expressed concern about how Johnson was behind other counties in switching to paper ballots.

Anybody but me getting a little nervous?

Just this week, we read about sample ballots mailed out with a certain presidential candidate's name spelled "Rudi," like a dancer at the Tanga Lounge instead of a former New York mayor. What might have been a slightly embarrassing flub starts to sound like a bad sign as a critical election looms.

Rumor had it Busansky might take on another local headline maker, Republican commissioner Brian Blair. But Busansky says that race already has a good Democratic candidate in financial planner Kevin Beckner. (Interestingly, Beckner is an openly gay candidate running against the conservative Blair, but that's another story for another day.)

Busansky, now 70 (is it really possible she was 51 when she first ran for county office?), is blunt when I ask about her recent health issues. "Lung cancer, kid," she says. Months after surgery, doctors tell her the prognosis couldn't be better if she never had it at all, or, "fabulous," as she puts it. Busansky-like, she put the experience into working on an antismoking cause in her consulting business.

With a hard-fought 2006 congressional race behind her, she can laugh about Gus Bilirakis' ad that played her as a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, political sort of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Which is pretty funny, actually, when you consider the people's causes she tends to push.

"I loved that race," Busansky says, the speeches, the people, the energy.

I ask if there are still some of those phyllis! bumper stickers lying around.

"I may have a few more," she says.

[Last modified January 11, 2008, 00:29:57]