Aha, it is a trick title. There is no making sense of Pinellas County. Especially when it comes to how its voters perform. And that brings us to Tuesday's elections, which involved a handful of municipal races and referenda, plus the headliner: Penny for Pinellas.
Using my many years of experience in the field, here are the conclusions we can draw from Tuesday's balloting. Pinellas voters are:
- Pro-Tax: They approved the Penny for Pinellas by a wide margin, 57 percent to 43 percent. That extends an addtional 1 percent sales tax for big-ticket projects for another 10 years, despite the wishes of Bishop Lynch and the Cut Taxes Now group.
- Anti-Tax: Clearwater voters chose a political unknown, Paul Gibson, who decided to run as a tax-fighter. He squeaked out a win against the St. Pete Times-chosen candidate, Norma Carlough, which in Clearwater is very rare.
- Happy with Government: For the first time, Clearwater voters approved a change to their waterfront, to allow boat slips to be built. Those same voters had for decades turned away other redevelopment efforts for the Bluffs, waterfront and Coachman Park. Kudos to Mayor Frank Hibbard, who succeeded where his predecessors failed in selling the idea.
- Unhappy with Government: In St. Pete Beach, two rabidly anti-establishment, anti-development candidates won seats on the city commission. Linda Chaney and Harry Metz are founders of Citizens for Responsible Growth, which has sued the city over its development plans.
This article appears in Mar 14-20, 2007.