The 60 or so people who gathered at the Piccadilly Cafeteria on a recent Wednesday night represent one progressive wing of the Democratic Party in St. Petersburg. This is a solidly working-class gang. The conversations are intense. The personalities are unique. The 10-oz. Angus chopped steak dinner is $8.49.
That is to say that the St. Petersburg Democratic Club and its meeting location on 34th Street N. are perfectly representative of vast swaths of the city, of the fed-up residents who are not part of the downtown condo boom or the funky bohemian art scene or the Chamber of Commerce: antiestablishment retirees, outspoken activists and others devoted to their take-no-prisoners vision of how the city could be better. Not exactly a gathering of the Mayor Rick Baker fan club.
It is entirely possible that the next mayor of St. Petersburg was in the room last Wednesday, shaking hands and explaining how he would deal with the tough times ahead. Three candidates were there: City Council Chairman Jamie Bennett, businessman Scott Wagman and retired builder Paul Congemi. The other three announced candidates — Amscot VP Deveron Gibbons, activist and minister Sharon Russ and former City Councilman Bill Foster — were not present, because they are Republicans. Even in this nonpartisan race, where an R or D won't appear on the ballot, party matters.
The primary election, which will result in a runoff between the top two finishers, is not until Sept. 1, but already mayoral politics is heating up in the Bay area's second-largest city:
• An anonymous operative has created "What's Wrong With Deveron," a faux blog that details unsavory (to Democrats, at least) factoids about Gibbons, like his support for Mitt Romney for president, donation to disgraced serial adulterer Cong. Tim Mahoney and the controversy about the city shifting its Midtown utility payments site to an Amscot location, where a $1 service charge would be added. The other campaigns have denied any involvement in putting up the attack site.
• The race card is out in full effect. The St. Petersburg Times has written about how (given the fact that two existing candidates and one person considering the race are black) it is an opportunity to elect the city's first black mayor. Even the political joke — made first by Foster and then by Wagman (two white candidates) — that they wouldn't mind being the first black mayor (à la Bill Clinton as the first black president) set off a mini-controversy on news pages. The context: Both had just listened to state Rep. Darryl Rouson recount the year of gains that African Americans made in 2008 with the election of Barack Obama and how St. Pete could likewise elect a black chief executive in 2009.
• Two big names remain specters in the race: Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch and state Rep. Rick Kriseman, both Democrats. Both had appeared to be sitting this one out, but last week Welch allowed that he was "rethinking" his stance and was 50 percent certain he would run.
Last week's Democratic mayoral forum, however, featured none of the behind-the-scenes intrigue. It did display two of the candidates who could be standing after the primary is over: Bennett and Wagman. (Congemi, 52, a former New Yorker who worked as a builder, is not accepting campaign contributions, asking people instead to write a check to the Free Clinic. He vowed to give away $25,000 of his mayoral salary to five different charities and touted his "personal war" against poverty.)
Bennett, 56, is the better-known of the two, having been elected to two terms on the St. Petersburg City Council during which he established a high profile dealing with homeless issues and the Tampa Bay Rays' quest for a new ballpark.
It is for that reason that political observers put Bennett and Foster at the head of the field, on name recognition alone.
At the Democratic Club, Bennett was working the "experienced" angle real hard, warning members about the "uneasy and uneven times" ahead. "We haven't seen the great crush of layoffs … yet," Bennett said, delivering the downbeat economic forecast with an upbeat manner. "You will start seeing some really severe cuts this year, and it won't be pretty." He told the crowd that the city will need somebody who knows City Hall well to make sure that the transition between Baker and the next administration goes smoothly.
Under questioning from the club, he said he didn't support getting rid of deputy mayors, as they are hard-working and indispensable. Cutting their salaries, he added, would not put appreciably more police on the streets.
If Bennett is a known quantity, Wagman, 55, is new to politics, making his first race for elected office (if you don't count a stint in college in the 1970s as the student body president at Tulane University). He and his wife, community leader and Signature Bank co-founder and chairwoman Beth Houghton, have long been known in social-philanthropic circles, donating $1 million to Great Explorations museum and serving on various nonprofit boards.
Wagman is running as the City Hall outsider. "I'm on a mission to listen," he told the club, eschewing a standard stump speech outlining a political agenda.
It was a very business-like message, no surprise given Wagman's resume. He grew his Scott Paints to a $20 million-a-year, 150-employee chain of stores throughout Florida before selling the business in 1998.
Wagman's speech was not one of a polished politician, but it wasn't bad, either. He challenged the audience to Google his name (two different ways, "Scott Wagman" or "Scott K. Wagman") if they wanted to find out more about him or get unvarnished opinions. He threw some read meat at the audience, pledging to deliver curbside recycling at no additional cost within one year of being elected.
Wagman drew the attention of the political crowd by hiring high-profile consultant Mitch Kates (he helped elect Sen. Charlie Justice, Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern and Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner, underdogs all) and Larry Biddle, a veteran of the Howard Dean presidential campaign and an Internet fundraising pioneer.
Aside from the missing Republicans, the question about who else might get into the race made the forum an incomplete version of St. Petersburg politics. That day, the Times ran a short item that Welch was re-thinking his decision not to run. When I caught up with Bennett before the club meeting started, that news was the first thing that came up.
"He's in. He's out," Bennett said. "Nobody knows."
The affable councilman continued, pressing his case for mayor: "I think you need to know [if you want to be mayor]. You have to have that fire in the belly. I feel confident, no matter who gets in. I think I need to be reckoned with. I'm in it for real."
I had spent time with Welch earlier in the day, talking about the report that he is "50 percent" certain he will run. He said his chances are slightly less than that and that he was concerned about staying on target at the county commission, where he recently was sworn in for a third term. The county has a new top administrator to break in, more difficult fiscal problems ahead and issues (housing, juvenile justice) Welch is passionate about.
But the mayor's office clearly has a strong appeal as well. Welch, after all, is the son of a well-known and well-liked city councilman, David T. Welch, who was respected across the racial divide that once so strongly defined St. Petersburg politics. I hear that Ken Welch is being lobbied hard by some powerful names in the city to enter the race, and that has him checking with his political allies to see how things would shake out in a campaign.
Likewise, rumors still swirl around State Rep. Rick Kriseman's entry. He told me from Tallahassee that while he is not ruling anything out, he is focused on his job at the special session of the Legislature. Kriseman did say he would not run if Welch did, and vice versa.
No matter who runs or gets elected, he or she will face the challenge of dealing with shrinking revenues and following in the footsteps of the city's first strong mayor, Rick Baker. Eight years of the (literally) towering Republican saw the strongest downtown growth of any city in the region; new amenities like a shopping center, post office and plans for a bank in economically strapped Midtown; and innovative programs like the one that pairs local businesses with public schools that need help.
If Baker had a blind spot, it was the chronically understaffed police department and the perception in some neighborhoods that cops weren't being tough enough on crime, especially street-level drug sales. Some activists have even called for the city to contract out police work to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
The next mayor has to balance solving those problems with creating jobs, keeping housing affordable and growing the lively arts and music scene that makes downtown St. Petersburg the hipness capital of Tampa Bay. It won't be an easy job.
(Dislcosures: As a political consultant in 2000 and 2004, I worked for Welch's county commission campaigns. Wagman has hired Larry Biddle, the partner of CL Editor David Warner, as his consultant.)
This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2009.