The Week That Was
Gasparilla distracted us, albeit briefly, from the nightmare that is our local and national economy. Funny what a few six-packs and some cheap beads will do for a person's spirit. And in the meantime, local politics began heating back up again as the jockeying for 2010 began. But first, a bit of racism in The Week That Was:
Hillsborough GOP loses another leader to racial comment: The Hillsborough County Repubican state committeewoman, a low-profile but nonetheless election job, resigned in yet another racial incident in the GOP. Carol Carter sent a joke to a handful of people via e-mail, and it read:
From: Carol Carter
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 9:30 AM
Subject: FW: Amazing!
I'm confused
How can 2,000,000 blacks get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn't get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?
Maybe the best part of the story: the comment in her follow-up mea culpa aimed at the eight folks to whom she sent the yuk-mail, at least one of whom had the temerity to forward it. "I am also sorry to learn," Carter opined in her pseudo-apologia, "that some of these persons are not real team players."
As the St. Petersburg Times pointed out, the timing was unfortunate: The e-mail appeared on the same day that the GOP national committee named its first African-American chairman, Michael Steele.
The Carter flap follows in the wake of two previous instances of GOP racist e-mail dunderheadedness, thanks to jokesters Al Austin (former state party finance chair) and David Storck (former county chair).
Ken Hagan switching seats: Back on Jan. 5, CL reported that Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan could jump out of his district seat early (that term ends 2012) and run for Jim Norman's countywide District 5 seat in 2010. This would give Hagan a chance at serving beyond the eight-year term limit that applies to any single seat. Hagan will have served six years in office by 2010; if he wins two terms in Norman's seat he would end up with 14 years on the county commission.
We had been hearing buzz about this strategy for some time, so we raised the idea in January. Hagan late last week followed through on his plans and filed for Norman's seat.
Hagan has apparently been planning this switcheroo for some months. His campaign registered the domain kenhagan2010.com back in Nov. 2008, with his campaign website designer listed as the admin contact. The homepage for the 2010 campaign website reads: "Welcome to the future home of KenHagan2010.com. Under construction."
So far his only opponent in the new seat is Don Kruse, who ran unsuccessfully against Brian Blair in last year's Republican primary.
Job losses worst since 1974: Oh, the heady days of the Nixon Administration. Not since then has this nation shed so many jobs. Last week's New York Times brought the bad news: "The country moved into its second year of uninterrupted job losses last month, with companies shedding another 598,000 jobs — the most since December 1974… Economists had forecast a loss of 540,000 jobs."
Here in Tampa Bay, there was mixed news. One study found Tampa the fourth-most desirable place to live in the U.S., while another study put Tampa Bay low on the list of best places to start a new business. The region ranked below Melbourne and even Daytona Beach on that list, put together by the Bizournals. If you rank behind Daytona Beach on any list except one measuring biker bars and tattoo shops, you have to seriously re-examine your economic development operation.
Quick hits: For a brief few hours, St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker was considering running for the U.S. Senate in 2010. But his open-ended statement to a Times reporter that he was not taking it off the table was initally over-played by the newspaper, and by that afternoon, Baker said he is not actively considering such a campaign. … Former Democratic State Sen. Les Miller will challenge incumbent Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin "Nice suit" White in 2010. … St. Pete mayoral hopeful Scott Wagman launched his "Mission to Listen" campaign and told The Scott Farrell Show on radio that he favors reinstating high-speed police pursuit.
This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2009.