Ybor City: It's a Monday night in mid-December as Carrie West takes the microphone to address dozens of supporters crammed into Hamburger Mary's in Centro Ybor. It's his first official campaign event in his quest to win a seat on the Tampa City Council, and the setting is appropriate. The colorful bar and grill is one of over a dozen gay-friendly establishments that have started doing business in the historic district since West helped create the GaYBOR District Coalition back in 2007.
Dressed formally in a suit and without his trademark cowboy hat (and with his long blonde tresses shorn to a conservative length), he stops in mid-sentence as a fan yells "Go West!" Sounding like an MC more than a candidate, he quickly responds, "I think we've got the theme song down. Pet Shop Boys, YMCA, we're going to be singin' and doin'!" he says, referencing the iconic gay band and the anthem by the Village People, who also famously recorded a song called "Go West."
He then slides into his campaign shtick. "This is all about working together. We want to make for a better lifestyle and a lot better living here in Tampa, and I'll tell you what: with light rail initiatives, better neighborhoods, working to keep our fresh water supply clean….we've got new development, great sports teams, new museums, and you know what? We're going to make Tampa green…"
He continues on for awhile, as the crowd of supporters takes it all in. West represents a relatively recent phenomenon in Tampa Bay: an openly gay man running for political office. The precedents are promising: Steve Kornell was elected to St. Pete's City Council in 2009, Kevin Beckner was victorious in his Hillsborough County Commission race in 2008, and then there was the milestone of Jane Castor being named to head the Tampa Police Department. (And West himself ran for Council once before in 1998.) However, West's challenge is twofold: He's not only running as an openly gay man in a changing district that still is strongly African-American, he's also white, which makes him somewhat of an underdog in a district that has consistently elected blacks for nearly three decades.
What he does bring to the contest is his experience, along with partner Mark Bias, as a small business owner — first in St. Petersburg, and, since 2007, in Ybor City with his MC Film Festival gift shop. As president of the GaYBOR coalition, he has helped establish and recruit over two dozen gay-friendly businesses to the area.
Don Barco, the owner of King Corona Cigars on 7th Avenue, says he was a bit skeptical when he first met West and heard about his plans for GaYBOR, since he'd heard of other grandiose business plans that never caught fire in the district. But he said West has delivered.
"I've come to know Carrie over the last few years and I sit with him on the YCDC [Ybor City Development Corporation, a city-based organization devoted to improving the district]. I've come to admire the work he's done and the positive element he's brought to Ybor City."
West calls himself a businessman who just happens to be gay. He hails from a family of politicians; his mother served on the board of education in his native state of Wisconsin, and his dad was field secretary for longtime Democratic Congressman David Obey, who recently retired after 42 years in office. "It's kind of in our blood," he says.
Among West's three other opponents, all of whom are black, Frank Reddick is the best-known, and the only one to publicly comment on West's sexuality. Reddick says he personally has no issue with West, but was slightly offended when he read that West wanted to follow Kevin Beckner's example on the Commission by being the first openly gay man elected to the Tampa City Council.
"I have a problem with that," Reddick said from his office on North 22nd Street. "You shouldn't be using your sexual orientation as trading in on being an elected official. There's people in District 5 that are suffering, people that need help. And I don't think that people in this district care whether you're gay or not, they want to know you're going to provide service for me, are you going to be able to represent me, are you going to be my voice?"
Reddick, who has served for 25 years as president & CEO of the Sickle Cell Association in Florida, says one of the most important things the district needs is a vocational program to provide job training for young people. "You got young people who lack skills because they don't have a high school diploma….They need to learn how to start a lawn-cutting service, do some technical things that go lacking."
He also says stricter code enforcement is needed in the area, as abandoned homes continue to proliferate.
In 1983, Perry Harvey Jr. became the first black elected to the Tampa City Council since Reconstruction, in what was then District 6 in Tampa. It later became District 5, and for the past 27 years, it's always been considered a "black seat."
While the district's demographics have been changing — it includes all of downtown Tampa, Channelside and Ybor City — it's still strongly African-American in its makeup. And it currently has a 12 percent unemployment rate.
That's why District 5 needs some serious economic development, says Diane Hart, who's owned a beauty shop in East Tampa for over two decades. She says the next administration needs to look at how the city spends TIF (Tax incremental financing) dollars to make sure that businesses in the area employ those who live in the community.
Reddick is well-known in Tampa's black community, and might be classified as the favorite since he served on the council as an interim member back in 2006 & 2007. However, after saying in 2007 that he wouldn't run for the permanent seat, he later did, and lost to Thomas Scott.
Like Reddick, Lynette Tracee Judge is reprising her 2007 candidacy. Hinting that Reddick may be a bit overconfident, Judge says she hasn't seen as much of Reddick on the campaign trail as she did four years ago.
Judge has worked for the Hillsborough County School board as a social service worker for over 11 years, and said she had considered running for school board, but believes she can have a bigger impact by getting elected to the council.
She supports a ban on panhandling, but says she's disappointed by the dismissive attitude toward the homeless she's heard recently: "These aren't throwaway people, and we can't continue to treat them like thrown-around people."
Herald Lord is an engaging new face in the contest. The youngest candidate running this year, the 26-year-old is currently getting his Bachelor's degree in political science at USF, and previously worked three years at the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office. He says improving the infrastructure in the district is a top priority.
He also says that the city is currently pricing kids and seniors out of the Parks & Rec systems, where fees were raised last year before a community revolt reversed those increases. "My thought is, if you don't pay for it now you'll pay for it later, in jails and prisons and things of that sort. That will be one of my top priorities because that's what I'm hearing from my constituents."
"In District 5 we have a lack of sidewalk completions, paved roads and even street lights, so my thing is 'Let there be light,'" he says. "I just can't believe how many neighborhoods are without lights."
So who will come out on top March 1 (or at least qualify for a runoff)? Patrick Manteiga, the editor/publisher of La Gaceta, says Carrie West is a hard worker with a solid base in GaYBOR, but cautions it's just one base. "I would say the African-American community is not the most embracing of a gay candidate, and so I think that will make his difficulties even greater."
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.