The latest entrant in the Tampa City Council election next March is 26-year-old Herald L. Lord, who filed yesterday to run in East Tampa's District 5 seat, where he will face Stanley Gloster, Lynette "Tracee"Judge, Carrie West and Frank Reddick. District 5 incorporates much of downtown, Channelside and Ybor City.
Ford has been working at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office for the past three years, where he was responsible for poll worker training and recruitment, as well as voter education and voter outreach.
He's a Tampa native, having grown up in Ybor City's Tampa Park Apartments complex. And he's currently completing his degree at USF in Political Science. Lots of candidates this year, whether they're running for local, state or national office, talk about creating jobs. But Ford says job training is vitally important as well. "I think the city needs to invest in job training. The city will have a new generation of jobs to come in the next decade I believe, and I think that we need to be prepared for those things."
Acknowledging Tampa's strong mayor form of government, he says that he wants to work closely with the new mayor to "harvest new job creation in our city," and speaks enthusiastically (Governor-elect Scott permitting) of the jobs that might come out of his district to help build the high speed rail station proposed in downtown Tampa.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2010.
