The release also includes more comments from Buckhorn & Ferlita's former City Council colleague, Mary Alvarez, who ripped into Buckhorn in a robocall that went out to Tampa residents on Monday. Alvarez goes a bit over the top in the press release however when she says that Buckhorn has somehow brought down the progress that women have made over the past century:
"How any man could call a woman sleazy in a campaign advertisement is a new low in Tampa politics. Look at Rose and her career, she can stand proud," former Tampa Councilwoman Mary Alvarez said. "Bob's attempt to diminish the status of women in politics and the progress that's been made over the last 100 years is unacceptable," she concluded.
The Ferlita camp also continues to promote the biggest issue that has hit the campaign since it became a one-on-one match up: that mysterious and controversial mailer that was never issued out that challenged Ferlita for being "Unmarried, " and saying that other media organizations have been able to ferret out a "smoking gun" between the never mailed flier and the Buckhorn campaign.
Bob Buckhorn has said to audiences and in a League of Women Voters's debate last week that his opponent has gone down a negative path, while he says has run a positive campaign. That has largely been true, but we did note at the time that calling Ferlita's a "sleazy campaign" somewhat belied that assertion.
However, how outraged (vs. calculated) is Team Ferlita? To come out now about the "sleazy campaign" label now is interesting, considering the ad with that comment has ran for nearly a week.
The Buckhorn strategy is not to rise to the bait. Spokesperson Beth Leytham writes in an e-mail that the press release is "just a failing Ferlita campaign trying to fabricate an issue to garner attention. As this campaign winds down, we will continue to focus on our detailed plans and aspirations for the people of the City of Tampa."
It had been a quiet couple of days in the Tampa Mayor's race, but Rose Ferlita changed that dynamic Wednesday afternoon when she issued a press release calling on opponent Bob Buckhorn to apologize to her and other women in general for calling her campaign "sleazy" in a television ad that's been airing for several days.
Ferlita says in the release:
Bob Buckhorn began this campaign trying to demean me by calling me 'Rosie' instead of by my proper name. Then he showed further disdain by denouncing negative ads when he himself, the king of dirty politics, relentlessly uses negative campaign ads. The ultimate disrespect he has shown me, as a woman, is by calling me 'sleazy.' With his checkered history with women and women's issues, and his elitist attitude, I'm not surprised," Ferlita said.
No word is wasted here, so the question is: what does Ferlita mean when say refers to Buckhorn's " checkered history with women and women's issues?" CL called the Ferlita camp to find out exactly what was meant by that statement, but did not have that call returned as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evening .
