After giving himself a week to decompress after the end of a campaign season that saw him on the losing end of the Hillsborough transit tax referendum, Jim Davis told CL early this afternoon that he is in fact "seriously considering," a run for Tampa Mayor in 2011.
Davis spoke individually on Wednesday with several print reporters to announce he's in the process of speaking to "folks who I respect " to gauge reaction to his possible entry into the race. The former Congressman, who represented Tampa and other parts of Pinellas and Manatee County as a Representative in Washington for 10 years, would not give any sense of when he might officially announce whether he's in or out in 2011.
He said the reaction has been positive from those he's consulted with, emphasizing that it's a "broad cross section" of Tampa, and not just close allies that he's speaking with. "I'm going to go as quickly as I can," when asked specifically when he will announce if he's officially in the race. Davis said he has a number of personal issues to attend to (including a wedding) in the next few days and weeks, but emphasized that he'll continue to be talking to people about his potential candidacy.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2010.