In nearly a decade of working as a political consultant in Tampa Bay, I saw nothing as destructive or inane as intra-party fighting.

Neither party has a monopoly on it; both sides love to eat their own.

I remember vividly working on Calvin Harris' campaign for Pinellas County Commission in 1998. Harris, a moderate Democrat, had been appointed to that all-Republican board by then-Gov. Lawton Chiles. He faced a tough challenge from an extremist conservative Republican in a county that traditionally only elected Republicans, and white Republicans at that. Harris is African-American.

My partner, Mary Repper, and I begged Harris to switch parties, to make it easy on himself. He was more in line with the GOP on some policies anyway, and at the county commission level, decisions are more pragmatic than ideological, we argued.

To no avail. Harris hung in there as a Democrat. He felt great love and loyalty toward the late governor, the "Old He-Coon," who had appointed him in the first place.

So the challenge remained: How to get him elected as a black Democrat?

The key, for us, was to have some of the prominent Republicans who supported him privately come out and do so publicly. It involved great risk, because no matter the race, partisan or nonpartisan, you are going to catch some crap if you are a politician who crosses party lines.

Then-Pinellas County Commissioners Sallie Parks and Steve Seibert, both clients of mine and Repper's and both Republicans, took that risk. They believed in Harris. They were also both moderate and both headstrong.

Their reward from their own party? In a very public gesture, Pinellas GOP chief Paul Bedinghaus ripped their portraits down from party headquarters walls. After some further GOP defections, Bedinghaus told the St. Petersburg Times, "It's Calvin Harris' fancy, paid consultants that are trying to create some fantasy land that the Republican Party is divided in this campaign."

Well, a belated thanks, Paul (I never thought of myself as "fancy"). And Harris won the race with 51 percent of the vote.

I'm reminded of Harris' campaign this week as intra-party fighting racks the Democratic Party committees on both sides of Tampa Bay. Their wild gyrations are undermining party unity, and their ability to get their candidates elected to public office. Some of it involves party loyalty — and Calvin Harris.

In Hillsborough, the ongoing soap opera that has characterized Janee Murphy's tenure as chairwoman continued with a chaotic week that saw her resign in tears and un-resign a few days later.

More on that later.

The real news is that infighting is now surfacing among Pinellas Democrats, who only a few months ago seemed the model for rebuilding a party that has been devastated by losses over the years. The cause: Two divisive issues arising from the otherwise sleepy St. Petersburg City Council and mayoral elections, which are all nonpartisan.

Some members of the Pinellas Democratic Executive Committee were poised to take on their chairwoman, Carrie Wadlinger, at their meeting Tuesday night (Sept. 27, a meeting after this column goes to press).

"Yeah, they're upset with me," Wadlinger acknowledged. "Do they want me to walk off? I've not heard that."

Wadlinger finds herself in a power struggle between the Progressives and the Centrists, if we can apply some over-simplistic labels. The Progressives are represented by Ed Helm, a Democratic candidate running against incumbent Republican Mayor Rick Baker. A few weeks back, Helm approached Democratic Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch (disclosure: Welch is a former political client of mine) and asked him to back down in his support of Baker. Welch told him no. Helm then complained to Wadlinger about Welch's anti-Democratic activities, as well as those of (you guessed it) Commissioner Calvin Harris, who is likewise supporting Baker. (In another twist, Welch is a former Republican who found himself persona non grata in that party after endorsing a Democrat.)

Democrats on the Executive Committee, you see, have to hew to a loyalty oath, which requires them to support Democratic nominees, even — according to some Progressives — in nonpartisan races, except for judicial campaigns.

Wadlinger opted not to alienate the only Democrats elected to county-level offices, Welch and Harris, and declared that the loyalty oath wouldn't matter in nonpartisan races. (Another consideration: As elected officials, Welch and Harris didn't have to sign the loyalty oath to be part of the DEC.)

The party has also been stung by allegations, mainly from the Uhuru supporters of Dwight Chimurenga Waller, that it is actively working against blacks in District 6 by supporting the only white candidate in that race, Darden Rice.

Some of those perturbed with Wadlinger would not speak publicly about their concerns, for fear of blowing the issue out into the newspapers more. But they do bemoan her unilateral policy statement on loyalty in nonpartisan races.

Wadlinger wouldn't preview her message for the meeting for this column, but said, "I have every intention of standing behind that podium Tuesday night and every Tuesday night. What Pinellas needs is a strong leader who won't back down. We have every chance to take back some seats and I'm going to fight for that."

Wadlinger concluded: "It's now that we figure out if they want to follow the leader or not."

Back in Hillsborough, where struggles are de rigueur this year, Democratic Chairwoman Janee Murphy remains in office after some histrionics that had one DEC member tell me, "I'm beginning to see why you switched to the Republican Party."

The most recent DEC meeting, held at a Spanish restaurant on Nebraska Avenue near Ybor City, devolved into shouting after a select committee presented its report about allegations of financial misdeeds on Murphy's part. Murphy, Hillsborough State Committeeman Monroe Mack and Murphy's supporters say that report cleared her of any wrongdoing. The largely Progressive crowd that doesn't support Murphy disagrees with that assessment. But the opportunity to question further the committee that investigated the matter was cut short by Murphy herself, who was overcome by emotion as she announced that she had to take care of her family and would be resigning, according to both pro- and anti-Murphy forces present that night. (There were no reporters at the meeting, so all of the printed accounts have been based on memories of those present.)

Murphy then went to the back of the meeting room and accosted Joe Bohren, one of her strongest critics, who lost the race for chairman to her three years ago. By many accounts, she called him "racist," and one person present recalls her calling him a "racist bastard." She then warned Bohren to stay away from her family and went outside, where some of her supporters consoled her.

"Her adversaries, she says, were back in the back room and were laughing, and they just got the best of her, and so she resigned," Mack recalled.

Bohren disputes that account, and is confounded by Murphy's "stay away from my family" remark. He said he's not gone near or concerned himself with her family at all.

By the end of the week, Murphy had un-resigned, buttressing her critics' contention that her "resignation" was a smokescreen designed to circumvent any discussion of the investigation into her conduct. And while some newspaper headlines touted that "Democrats clear county leader," the actual report doesn't quite do all that.

The allegations, made by Vice Chairman Bob Keenan, maintain that Murphy misused a party credit card for her own personal items (she acknowledges mistakenly charging around $300 of goods on the wrong credit card and repaid the party) and criticize her leadership for 2004 losses at the polls.

The report "finds that the above alleged violations are clear violations" in regards to the credit card use. But the committee concluded that Murphy had not tried to defraud the DEC. "Most of the discrepancies," its report said, "can be accounted for by poor record-keeping."

She surrendered the card to the party's treasurer in May and new financial guidelines were put into place. Her violations of party guidelines were deemed "an honest mistake." The report cleared Murphy, although it suggested she strive to improve her communications skills with all Democrats and improve her skills "at developing esprit d'corps among HDCEC members."

In the aftermath of Murphy's resignation, DEC members voted overwhelmingly to kick Keenan out of the committee. The investigative report had concluded that it was Keenan who violated party rules by taking his allegations to state leader Karen Thurman instead of keeping it in-house.

Let the healing begin.

Murphy, for her part, said the report was thorough and exonerates her. She said she changed her mind about resigning after cooling down and admits that her emotions got the best of her at the meeting. She apologized to the DEC members for her outburst.

"It was spontaneous," Murphy said. "It was not thought out. After that, I had some time to say, OK, I reached the breaking point, so what do I do?"

She wants to move the focus away from the DEC and to newly created interest caucuses for Hispanics, gays and bisexuals, and Democrats in Sun City Center, for starters. She does not plan on intervening in attempts to oust Keenan ("That's really not for me to call"), and insists that she's spent years reaching out to her critics and all Democrats.

Murphy remains in charge and unrepentant.

"I don't like when people try to push me out," she said. "I don't like when people try to label me or this local party. Sometimes you need this stuff to shake you up and make you better."

Political Whore can be reached at wayne.garcia@weeklyplanet.com or at 813-739-4805.

This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 4, 2005.