The local dailies are featuring stories regularly about the Rob Turner-Ronda Storms battle royale to be the GOP nominee for property appraiser. Turner, the incumbent, looked liked toast when revelations surfaced about an embarrassing "sexting" scandal involving his former human resource manager and ex-girlfriend. But he has announced he will run for re-election for a fifth time, and there are some political analysts who don't think he's a dead man walking. Not yet anyway.
Perhaps one reason why is his competition. Although former state Senator Ronda Storms has impressed many people as a fighter for the working class in her six years in Tallahassee, her reputation in Hillsborough County from her days on the Board of County Commissioners is not as pristine.
The winner of the August 14 primary will face Democrat Bob Henriquez, a former state legislator representing West Tampa for eight years (1998-2006) in the state capitol.
At the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee meeting on Monday night, the man they call "Coach" sounded confident about his chances against either Republican come November.
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2012.