You may have heard about the flurry of negative press around St. Pete Council candidate Lisa Wheeler-Brown’s campaign, namely that she paid for dental work out of her campaign fund and used office space that was not reported as an in-kind contribution.

Both stories were originally reported in the past week or so by SaintPetersBlog/Florida Politics reporter Janelle Irwin (Disclosure: Irwin is a close friend of yours truly).

Wheeler-Brown’s campaign characterized the issues as clerical errors, but supporters of her opponent, Will Newton, say the news show her inability to serve, among other things. Leading the criticism is consultant Nick Janovsky, who did some work for her campaign earlier this year (depending on whom you asked, he was either fired or he quit, but his firm, Strategic Campaigns, made a killing while he was there).

But those backing Wheeler-Brown don’t think much of the mudslinging, and hope no one else does.

“I’m comfortable supporting Lisa,” said Councilman Karl Nurse. “I know there have been some folks doing, you know, some mudslinging.”

Newton and Wheeler-Brown are competing for the city’s District 7 council seat, which covers much of St. Pete’s largely impoverished and underserved south side. The two topped a five-person primary in August. While voting in the primary took place only within the bounds of the district, they’ll be facing off in a citywide general election in November.

Nurse said he and other supporters heard rumblings of nastiness coming down the pike weeks before it happened.

“The description was, ‘we’re going to destroy her,’” said Nurse.

It’s not like it’s the first time a candidate used funds for something that might seem questionable, he added.

“There have been lots of candidates who have bought a suit for a campaign or something like that,” Nurse said, pointing out that the late Congressman Bill Young spent campaign money on new, luxury cars more than once. “The world is not going to change because there’s a spitting match between a former campaign [staffer] and current campaign manager as to who made the mistakes.”

St. Pete City Council member Darden Rice is also not convinced the attacks are a reflection of Wheeler-Brown’s character or ability to serve, and said her support stands.

“100%,” Rice said in a text message. “The public should see through the ugly personal attacks [against Lisa] for what they are.”

For Nurse, there’s too much at stake to be focused on the mudslinging.

“What frustrates me is that we have important issues to talk about here.”

Take the Rays and the possibility of the Atlanta Braves scooping up the potential Toytown stadium site (and the bed tax money to build a spring training stadium) before the Rays and St. Petersburg work out a stadium deal, which he called the number one economic issue facing the city.

“If we don’t work out something with the Rays before that Toytown thing is settled and [the Braves] get first in line for the bed tax money, the game is over,” Nurse said. “The largest source of funding for a new stadium is bed tax money. There’s not going to be enough money for two stadiums. And if we end up sitting on our hands, not working it out with the Rays, the Braves get ahead of us, they get the money, we have nothing to discuss with the Rays.”

Having “a fifth member of City Council who is interested in working with the Rays,” as Wheeler-Brown is, would be “a way to get around that,” Nurse added, while Newton, by contrast, would have a more hardline approach to dealing with the team’s agreement to play at Tropicana Field until 2027.

Rick Smith, head of the local chapter of the Florida Public Service Union, said he’s also steadfast in his support — if not even stronger.

“We’re tired of political hacks running campaigns and not addressing the specific issues,” he said. “Lets talk about the failure factories…let’s talk about the eradication of poverty on the south side.”

Nurse said what’s more important is Wheeler-Brown’s experience leading the Council of Neighborhood Associations, an often tough task he said is about as close to serving on council as one can get since it involves dealing with a “broad spectrum of neighborhoods.”

“This is a distraction,” Nurse said. “Lisa has shown leadership.”

The election takes place Nov. 3, and all of the city’s voters can weigh in, whether or not they live in the district. Also on the ballot are several other races, each with an incumbent facing a relatively unknown challenger, and four charter amendments.That makes for about five and a half more weeks of mudslinging.

“If you get a negative thing in the mail throw it away and vote for the other person,” Smith said.

This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2015.