Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair held a press conference today at noon to discuss his four years in office that turned into an attack on the newly elected commissioner Kevin Beckner. Reporters guessing that Blair would put his foot in his mouth at his first (last?) press conference after losing his seat to Beckner were not disappointed.
After thanking his family and staff, Blair took questions from various media outlets. He blamed his election loss on about everyone — from Kevin Beckner's "slanderous and libelous" campaign ads to Blair's own campaign manager — but himself. But the real jaw-dropper came while Blair was describing the "blantant lies" hurled by Beckner during the campaign:
"There's a lot of good people that don't run for office because they know that once they're in that glass jar, that bubble, they're going to be attacked. But certainly you have to know the rules. There's gotta be rules in everything. I mean, how far can you go? Could I say that his boyfriend gave him AIDS or something like that? [Blair starts to stammer] I certainly know that's not true, and I would never say that. I ran a clean campaign, above-board; I never got into some of the stuff I certainly could have." [emphasis added]
Blair, a Republican, said he may pursue legal action against Beckner over some of the comments the Democrat allegedly made while campaigning. He's also considering filing a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission.
Residents have not seen the last of Blair. He hinted that he may run for Jim Norman's commission seat in 2010, or the Florida House seat currently held by Rep. Kevin Ambler. For some residents in attendance, including members of the United Citizens Action Network who constantly clashed with Blair over the last few years, any time will be too soon to see the Killer B in office again.
Second best quote from Blair: "You gotta go get my action figures. They're out now!"
Video after the jump.
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2008.