South Tampa resident Julie Jenkins has built up lots of grass roots support from her work with neighborhoods over the past two decades that she's spent in Tampa. She's worked in sales and marketing positions for AirTran Airways, Holiday Inn and Virgin Atlantic Airways, as well as in real estate, and ran for City Council in District 1 back in 2007 (losing out ultimately to Gwen Miller, who beat Joe Redner in a runoff).
Jenkins announced her candidacy for the City Council District 4 South Tampa seat back in January of 2010. And though other candidates got into the race later in the year, she was still probably the prohibitive favorite to succeed the man who held that seat for 7 of the last 8 years, John Dingfelder.
And then along came Harry. Cohen, that is.
Cohen, who was serving as the chief deputy to Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank, announced his candidacy for the seat in December, and immediately sucked up a lot of energy in the race. Aided by $25,000 of his own money he donated to his cause, Cohen was able to get sizable donations from other folks as well, and has raised over $75,000 (that's as of the last filing period, which ended Feb.24. The next filing period ends this Thursday), the most of any council candidate. He took home 44 percent of the vote on election day, with Jenkins getting nearly 29 percent, placing the duo into the March 22 runoff.
The two Democrats aren't that different when it comes to their worldview. Cohen has been emphasizing how his experience in cutting the Clerk of the Courts budget by 15% in recent years has prepared him well for what may lie in store if he gets to City Hall. But Jenkins says her corporate background is a plus as well.
"I think Harry and I are very similar in the ways that we think and possibly how we do business," she says."He’s been in the public sector in government. I’ve been out there doing working corporate. I have to balance a budget, too. He’s balanced a bigger budget, but I’ve to do that with two businesses. You can cut, cut cut, but you’ve also got to grow, too."
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2011.