Flanked by some of his most loyal supporters, Ed Turanchik endorsed Bob Buckhorn for mayor in Tampa's runoff election Monday morning at the Independent in Seminole Heights, saying, "I have decided to unequivocally and unconditionally provide my support for Bob Buckhorn as the runoff mayoral candidate best prepared to lead Tampa into the second decade of the 21st century."
Turanchik said that he had met with both Buckhorn and Rose Ferlita over the past couple of days to discuss their perspectives on a variety of issues before deciding who he would support.
But despite that meeting with Ferlita, it would have been a major upset if Turanchik had supported her, since it would have flown in the fact of the fact that on many issues Buckhorn and Turanchik are relatively similar in their stances, whereas Turanchik seemed to at times go out of his way to criticize Ferlita in the many candidate forums that took place in the six weeks before election day.
Turanchik, who garnered 19% of the vote last Tuesday in coming in fourth out of a five candidate field, praised Buckhorn's clear vision for the future, and said his experience working as a top deputy to former Mayor Sandy Freedman for eight years (1987-1995) would be pivotal in preparing him for office.
Turanchik praised Ferlita on a personal level, but not on policy. "I came away impressed with her warmth, sincerity and commitment to this city," he said, adding however that her campaign platform "remains unfocused; and her agenda and priorities relatively unchanged." He also said he hadn't seen Ferlita provide a "clear and compelling vision for our future." Turanchik added that he wasn't saying that Ferlita couldn't ultimately come up with that vision – simply that she hasn't shown that vision at this time.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.