Rose Ferlita won more votes than anybody in last week’s Tampa primary mayoral race, and a new poll shows her leading in the runoff against Bob Buckhorn.

So if she’s looking good right now,why dump an extensive (30 pages listed, though we counted 40) binder of policy positions on the media and the electorate just 13 days before voters go to the polls on March 22?

It’s unquestionably a concession to the complaint that she has failed to provide such a complex blueprint up to now, with her loudest critics being Buckhorn and the print media.

Not that she was expecting his approval, but Buckhorn was decidedly not impressed upon inspecting the plan. “I think it’s pretty sad that after 12 years in public office and nine months on the campaign trail, this is the best she can come up with?” adding that he believes the voters deserve better.

But do the undecided voters care, and will they even read the document?  Which is why CL asked her today why she felt the compulsion to release such a set of plans so late in the process.  She said that she already had released a plan (her “building blocks” document”) and “I have continued to add to those specifics.”  She said she wasn’t doing it for the media, but for the people who are voting on March 22.

That led the St. Pete Times’ Rick Danielson to follow up that if it was so important to get this before the voters, why wasn’t it produced before last week’s primary election, when conceivably she could have taken enough votes to win the race outright?  She then appropriated a little Pam Iorio, saying that it was a virtue to be tweaking her plans. “Somebody who stops their plan as they progress, they stagnate,” she said, paraphrasing a passage in Iorio’s State of the City address delivered earlier Wednesday.

Ferlita unveiled some of the new details in her telephone town-hall meeting Monday night, and added more strokes during Tuesday night’s debate.

They include: a Fiscal Impact Analysis to be conducted for every new City ordinance, contract, program or initiative.  She will also have a Virtual File Cabinet, giving the public on-line access to view various City files involving major expenditures and other issues, and a Small Business Program to provide incentives and assistance to both large and small businesses.

Part of her strategy is to paint Buckhorn as a big government elitist. That’s why the only page she’d probably like the media to concentrate on is her side-by-side comparison of her plan’s to Buckhorn’s.  She said, “He talks about where he wants the city to go. My plan addresses how we get there.”

She brought this up when talking about job creation, saying (as she has before) “we cannot focus on exclusively the cluster industries of bio-tech and hi-tech.” She quickly added that she wouldn’t run away from recruiting those industries, but said Tampa was known for a “diversified” work force, and quoted again a figure that just 30% of Tampa citizens have college degrees.

Buckhorn bristled at this rhetoric. “I want my mayor to inspire, to elevate, not to encourage people to settle for what’s comfortable and mediocre,” adding, “for her to be content for fast food jobs, is not somebody I want to be my mayor.”

But when asked at her press conference if her strategy was now to portray Buckhorn as a big government liberal, she said no, trying to hitch her wagon to outgoing Mayor Pam Iorio, who she said she was similar to in being a fiscal conservative.  And when CL asked her if she was trying to paint him as an elitist, she replied, “I’m not trying to paint Mr. Buckhorn as anything.  Mr. Buckhorn creates the image for himself that he wants to.”

Also on Wednesday, former Hillsborough County Administrator and Florida Supreme Court Justice Fred Karl endorsed Ferlita, saying, “I’ve seen Rose in action and how effective she is in the community.  On balance I feel she is the best candidate for the important office of Mayor.”

This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2011.