Last night four of the five candidates who are on the ballot in the District 58 House special election engaged in a candidates forum at Oak Grove Church of God in Tampa.
The event was sponsored by several Latino media organizations, with Tampa Univision reporter Gonzalo Alvarado and Pinecrest-West Park Neighborhood Civic Association board member Marcia Mejia asking the questions.
All of the candidates, except for Janet Cruz, participated. CL was unsuccessful before the forum to learn why she was not attending.
In the Republican race, accountant and Latin Chamber of Commerce head Jackie Rojas-Quinones has received virtually all of the newspaper endorsements in her race against attorney Hunter Chamberlin. Chamberlin is a former prosecutor from Miami who has lived in Seminole Heights over the past three years.
In discussing how to revitalize the dormant Florida economy, Chamberlin frequently talked about looking at other states to see what they're doing right (mentioning Southern states like Tennessee and Alabama who have created tax incentives for auto companies to do business in), and those that are doing it wrong (like New York and California).
Rojas-Quinones opened up by declaring flatly that "this is my district," and said that though she's not a career politician, she felt the need to step up and run for office after Mike Scionti announced last month that he was leaving his seat to go to Washington.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2010.