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Wide field for mayor offers room to disagree
By BRYAN GILMER and LEONORA LaPETER © St. Petersburg Times, published February 4, 2001 ST. PETERSBURG -- Early in the week, Omali Yeshitela's sign staked out the yard on Brightwaters Boulevard NE on Snell Isle. By Wednesday, it was gone, vanquished in favor of Kathleen Ford's. Friday, Yeshitela was back, Ford gone. It turns out the two-day rotation is a compromise. For Natalie and Tom Judge, it's a way to balance their divided loyalty. The Judges respect Ford, who is a longtime friend of their neighbors, Natalie Judge's sister, Helen Wallace, and her husband, Peter R. Wallace. But they believe someone such as Yeshitela, the leader of an African socialist party, can concentrate on fixing inequities that leave many black families poorer than the average white one. "We sit in a nice spot over here," said Natalie Judge, who raises her 6-year-old full-time. "It's unusual to have a sign like that in our yard. We don't need change. We have a nice house, a nice yard, a nice neighborhood. But we all benefit if we come up with change, if we come up with someone who benefits everyone." Having nine candidates for St. Petersburg mayor has made for plenty of interesting alliances and compromises. Several homes host signs for different candidates. Spouses contribute to different campaigns. And other people have lined up behind a candidate they may have seemed unlikely to support. Right next door to the Judges, for instance, Peter Wallace is another example. A former Speaker of the House, he gained a reputation in Tallahassee as a compromiser, one who could persuade members on both sides of the political aisle to work for the common good. He backed Ford four years ago and he supports her bid for mayor. So how did "St. Peter from St. Petersburg" become a fan of the eye-rolling, occasionally condescending and caustic Ford? Wallace said he grew up with Ford's husband, Harvey, but he also likes Ford's style, as different as it is from his own. "I don't think it's necessarily harmful to shake things up," Wallace said. "I do admire the ability to bring people together, but I don't think that complacency is an asset, and Kathleen is anything but complacent. She is willing to raise questions and challenge the status quo. What I'm saying is, even though it's not necessarily my style, it's maybe something I needed more of when I was in office." Downtown and professional interests seem divided too. The conventional wisdom is that former Chamber of Commerce chairman Rick Baker will monopolize the support of the downtown business establishment. But both Larry Williams and Ford are also attracting a lot of support from that segment. "I've got a dean of a law school, the former president of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, and a former president of the Florida Bar Association supporting me," said Ford, a lawyer and former nurse. Former Mayor Randy Wedding supports Williams for mayor and contributed $250 to the campaign. The two got to know each other back when they worked to make St. Petersburg's mayor the chief executive, not just the chair of the City Council. "That goes back almost 10 years," Wedding said. "When Larry decided he was going to run, it was a no-brainer for me. He had to be my candidate." But Wedding's wife, June, "has a mind of her own," Wedding said. "June, on the other hand, has in the last two or three years met and worked some with Rick (Baker), and she liked Rick and wanted to support Rick," Wedding said, noting that she gave Baker $250. "I'm a Gator and she's a Seminole." Financial contributions usually indicate support, but this time around, even that may not always be true. Earnest Williams, himself a candidate for the District 6 City Council seat, gave $50 to Ford's campaign in November, but he said the check is not a pledge of support. The City Council appointed the insurance agency owner last fall to fill a temporary vacancy on the council. "I'm not endorsing any candidate in this election," Williams said. "I'm not involved in this race. I was just returning what was given to me." Williams said Ford contributed to his campaign for state House against Frank Peterman (his City Council predecessor) last fall. But Yeshitela's campaign may draw more unlikely supporters than any other as he seeks to reshape his image from black separatist firebrand to congenial uniter of races and classes. As the chairman of the African People's Socialist Party, Yeshitela writes on the group's Web site that "the destruction of colonialism, led by a conscious black revolutionary socialist party, will constitute the critical blow in the struggle for socialism within U.S. borders." The party platform on the site calls for "an end all local, state, federal and other taxation of black people," "the immediate and unconditional release of all black people who are presently locked down in U.S. prisons," and "the right to build an African People's Liberation Army." But on the campaign trail, Yeshitela's slogan is "St. Petersburg united in shared prosperity." Using it, he has gained the support of several mainstream figures. Manuel Sykes, pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church said, "I believe the solutions he proposes are valid. We need economic development across the whole city. There has been exclusion of the south side of St. Petersburg, and that is what he has been addressing." Former Pinellas teacher's union president Doug Tuthill is campaigning for Yeshitela. He says Yeshitela is misperceived as a radical. "He was outside in the wilderness and a lone voice, so he was loud," Tuthill said. "Anybody outside in the wilderness is loud. Once we let him in the house, said, 'We want to hear what you have to say,' he wasn't so loud, wasn't so radical." Tuthill resigned as head of a city-supported urban revitalization program after City Council members thought he helped Yeshitela and his Uhuru movement too much on the city's dime. Tuthill says there is plenty of room in Yeshitela's tent for supporters, no matter how unlikely they might seem. 'If you're a white Republican and you listen carefully, you'll like Omali Yeshitela; he believes in self-sufficiency and limited government," Tuthill said.
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