Voters decide to keep the faces familiar

Seven incumbents win re-election in various municipal elections around Pinellas County. An eighth faces a runoff.

By AMY WIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 7, 2001

Incumbents ruled the day in Pinellas city elections Tuesday, with seven of them winning re-election to their seats and an eighth preparing for a runoff.

Four cities -- Gulfport, Largo, South Pasadena and Seminole -- held city elections, and voters in each city opted to stick with the sitting candidates.

In Gulfport, Mayor Michael Yakes, who joined the City Council in 1986 and was first elected mayor in 1991, is poised to become the city's longest-serving mayor in history. He won 71 percent of the vote in a three-way race that focused on whether the city's Police Department is properly managed.

His challengers were Larry Tosi, a recently retired Gulfport police lieutenant, who received 24 percent; and John Freiberger, a perennial critic of the city who earned 5 percent.

The election attracted 2,044 voters, or 25.5 percent of the Gulfport electorate.

Also in Gulfport, political newcomer Dawn Fisher was the top vote-getter in the Ward 2 race and will face longtime incumbent Jack Olsen in a March 20 runoff. Fisher received 47 percent of the vote; Olsen, 45 percent; and another newcomer, John Hamilton, received 8 percent and did not qualify for the runoff.

Ward 4 Gulfport City Council member Larry Cooper won a third term in office, winning 77 percent of the vote. Challenger Ernest Stone received 23 percent.

Also winning a mayoral race Tuesday was South Pasadena Mayor Fred Held, who first held office in the city in 1981 and has been mayor since 1994. He was re-elected with 61 percent of the vote, despite claims that Held was running illegally.

A challenger, Lou Ippolito, who campaigned on the premise that Held already had served the maximum number of elected terms allowed by the City Charter, received 20 percent. Another challenger, Ray Christensen, who first joined the race to offer voters an alternative in case Held was disqualified, earned 19 percent.

Twenty-eight percent of the city's registered voters cast ballots in South Pasadena.

All three incumbents in Seminole's race for City Council also held onto their seats in the re-election. The election attracted 10 percent of Seminole's registered voters.

Of 994 votes cast Tuesday, Pete Bengston was the top vote-getter with 29 percent. He will serve a two-year term, along with Patricia Hartstein, 28 percent, and Paul Trexler, with 23 percent. Political newcomer Leo Mutchler received 20 percent of the vote.

And in Largo, City Commissioner Harriet Crozier was re-elected to a three-year term Tuesday, defeating Code Enforcement Board member Sal Gattuso by nearly a 3-1 ratio.

Crozier, who campaigned on her seven years as commissioner and vowed to make reclaimed water available for more residents, won 74 percent of the vote. Gattuso, a political newcomer in Largo who complained that many voters feel disenfranchised by commissioners, garnered 26 percent.

The Largo election attracted 6 percent of registered voters.

- Times staff writers Sheila Mullane Estrada, Eric Stirgus and Maureen Byrne contributed to this report.

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