An incident today involving Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan in front of the College Hill library in East Tampa has led his Democrat opponent in their District 5 race, Linda Saul-Sena, to say she will file a complaint with the state Commission on Ethics.
The incident in question involves a yard sign that the Saul-Sena camp had posted on the grass in front of the library, which is a poll location for early voting. The sign said that Hagan honored Confederate Memorial Day, which he and other commissioners did in fact to over the past decade before controversy over the ritual finally erupted in 2007 and led the board to stop doing so (though Hagan did vote that year again to support the day, along with Brian Blair and Jim Norman).
Saul-Sena says that observers saw Hagan rip the sign off of its supporting metal post and go into the library to complain to an elections official about it. Saul-Sena says that observers allegedly saw Hagan then throw the sign onto the ground, replacing it with his own sign.
But Hagan says that's not exactly what happened.
He says that indeed he was upset about the sign, considering it offensive to place it in the predominantly African-American area. He says he did pick it up and walk into the voting area, where he spoke with an official from the Supervisor of Elections office, complaining about it.
He said the Supervisor of Elections official told him he could not make a judgement on the content of the sign, but said it was legal as long as it was not placed within 100 feet of the polling place. Hagan says he then handed the sign back to a Saul-Sena supporter (somebody who was wearing an Orange Saul-Sena campaign T-shirt), and went on his way.
This article appears in Oct 21-27, 2010.
