Mayor Rick Kriseman has one hell of a fight ahead of him this summer as he seeks reelection.
Former mayor Rick Baker has launched an aggressive offensive fortified with gobs of Republican money via his campaign war chest as well as a big fat Super PAC, with which he'll spend the summer going after Kriseman, mostly on the city's wastewater woes.
Plus, it's a seven-candidate race with a wildcard or two that could affect the outcome of the August 29 election (after which there will probably be a runoff).
But this week has been a good one for the incumbent mayor.
First, after some local media outlets made a huge deal about all the Baker yard signs going up throughout town and there having been a dearth of Kriseman signs and how that might affect the election (gawd), the latter's yard signs have come in.
Neat-o.
And then on Wednesday on his Facebook page, he posted that one Jimmy Buffett contributed to his campaign. Buffett has been active in politics here and there, with (somewhat) recent political activities including stumping for Hillary Clinton and recording a video urging voters to say hell-effing-no to a utility-sponsored amendment that would have hamstrung growth of solar power in Florida. It's hard to know what kind of impact the Florida folk mega-star's support of Kriseman will have, but it's still kind of cool.
This article appears in Jun 22-29, 2017.