In addition to lengthy recaps of the mayoral candidates before Tuesday's election, both the Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times published short stories on Sunday morning about the outrage that Dick Greco and Pam Iorio share about a mailer being distributed to Tampa households from an anonymous 527 group. The mailer attacks Greco on some of the same issues that his opponents have hit him on this campaign – some questionable financial decisions that have left considerable debt on the taxpayers of Tampa.
(An issue with our blogging software this morning precludes us from featuring said mailers. We'll place them in the post as soon as we can).
The front side of the mailer shows a huge plastic gloved hand using some cleaning solution on City Hall, with the caption, "Call Pam Iorio and tell her thank you for cleaning up Dick Greco's mess," listing among those things that Iorio presumably had to clean up was the Steve LaBrake mess, the Centro Ybor debt, and a high crime rate.
The mailer also quotes from the Tampa Tribune from January 24, 2011, that "she inherited a city with myriad problems…"
That's also how we began our story on the mayor's race in the current issue of CL, when a Tampa voter named Sydney Potter read aloud directly to Greco at a recent Tiger Bay event:
There haven't been too many questioners at Tampa mayoral forums older than Dick Greco. But last Friday, the 77-year-old former mayor snapped to attention at a Tiger Bay debate at the Straz Center as Sydney Potter, 92, took the mic to ask a question.
The longtime Hills-borough River advocate began by saying, "I've lived in Tampa longer than any of you," before quoting a Tampa Tribune report from the beginning of Pam Iorio's tenure that said the city faced "myriad problems, from criminal neighborhoods, crumbling infrastructure, skyrocketing debt and depleting reserves."
And yes, the man Iorio replaced in 2003 was Dick Greco.
Three days earlier that week, we wrote about a mayoral forum in South Tampa, where Ed Turanchik distributed an information sheet that he alleged showed that Greco had made poor financial decisions that will ultimately cost the city $99 million. ( As the Times Richard Danielson blogged aferwards, Mr. and Mrs. Greco had some words for Turanchik after he made that declaration after that debate).
The source of anger by the former Mayor is understandably the fact that the mailer is being sent out from a group called the Liberty Leadership Fund. The Trib's Christian Wade reports that Greco's campaign traced the mailer to a committee formed last week by a "group of Republicans," which sounds accurate to us.
Rose Ferlita is the only registered Republican in this nonpartisan race, though there is no proof that she has had anything to do with the mailer.
But the Greco folks are on to something in speculating that the mailer comes from interested Republicans. An attack mailer went out a few days ago targeting Democrat Mary Mulhern, that some have contacted CL about believing it comes from Republican interests.
And then there's a new mailer out that touts every Republican running on Tuesday, even those Republicans running against each other in some city council race. It's front page touts the fact that Tampa will host the 2012 GOP Convention, before listing all the registered Republicans running on Tuesday. (Unfortunately we can't post it yet, but it also features a picture.)
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2011.