Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober is finding himself in what's probably an unfamiliar place this week — on the defensive.
The longtime head prosecutor is in a partisan battle to hold on to his position, something he's not used to. It's been eight years since the Republican, who enjoys bipartisan support, has faced a challenge in a primary or general election.
Andrew Warren, a former federal prosecutor, stepped into the fray to become his Democratic challenger. Warren, a newcomer, has shown some decent fundraising chops but until now hadn't really lobbed any attacks at Ober (and vice-versa).
Until this week, when Warren's campaign said they stumbled on something seemingly capable of tank the likes of Marco Rubio: gross absenteeism.
Via public records requests, campaign operatives obtained records showing every instance in which Ober swiped his card to get in and out of his office, which is situated in a building at 419 N. Pierce St.
Over the month of March, those records show Ober using that card to access his place of employ on March First, 20th, 28th, 29th and 30th.
To Warren's campaign, this was opposition research gold.
Tom Alte, a spokesman for Warren's campaign, said it is "pretty clear this supports what we've been hearing from the legal community: Mark Ober is an absentee State Attorney and it's causing cases to fall through the cracks. That he's attempting a cover-up over him not attending work is even more concerning."
Alte said the SAO's seemingly botched handling of a sex crime against a local teen that appeared to involve human trafficking across state borders (a case it chose to take another look at after Channel 10's Mike Deeson investigated) is evidence of this.
Ober said that suggestion that he's not devoted to his work is a total crock (our words, not his).
Just because he doesn't use his swipe card every time he crosses the threshold to his office, he said, doesn't mean he's not there.
In fact, if you look at the dates and times he did swipe the card, most are after business hours or, as is the case on March 20, on a weekend.
Typically, he said, his receptionist buzzes him in.
“Very seldom do I use my swipe card at all,” Ober told CL.
He said he'll occasionally use the card to get into the conference room adjacent his office, but that's neither here nor there; he sees himself as always on the clock, and even brings his work home with him most nights.
To show how busy the guy is, his office sent his schedule for the month of March, which shows appointments and events every weekday, some of which were out of the office.
The exchange suggests that this race is likely to heat up over the coming months as Warren, who has lived in Tampa since 2013, seeks to boost his name recognition ahead of the general election.
Warren said he hopes to run his race not on mudslinging, but on what he thinks matters most: his experience.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2016.