Times columnist Daniel Ruth weighs in with another winning piece this morning on a subject that Tampa political reporters and others who simply love following politics somehow can't resist: former Mayor Dick Greco, and will he or won't he run for Mayor in 2011?
It's the 2nd piece on the former Mayor in the paper in the past week, and neither the column nor the article really give any compelling reasons why he should be the Mayor again – it's more along the lines of, "Well, Dick Greco isn't dismissing the rumor, so he might do it. Ain't that grand!"
I know I run the risk of personalizing this because I am not a Tampa native. I don't know if carpetbagger or interloper is the term some life long Tampanians might want to call me for daring to write this, but: what's the clamoring all about?
I admit that I have participated in the too early but what the hell theorizing about possible candidates (it's a small part of the story in last week's CL about Hillsborough County Commissioner Rose Ferlita). And as we get closer to 2010 speculation about who will succeed Pam Iorio will only grow greater, because, well, she has to leave office in March of 2011.
I guess my biggest issue is that there's something about Mr. Greco I've never really got. That is, his alleged 'charisma' factor. I would argue that Charlie Crist has charisma. Marco Rubio has more charisma. Barack Obama has probably the most charisma I've ever witnessed in a politician.
I'm not getting that from Greco, nor have I ever. But in Tampa, his personality has always been considered one of his best attributes.
I came to Tampa in 2000, long enough to be around for most of Greco's last term in office. A few things stand out for me about that tenure. His somewhat bold trip to Cuba in 2002 (which might have been even bolder if he hadn't left town in the middle of the night without telling anybody), which was definitely a big deal in Tampa 7 years ago in a way it is not now.
I remember him endorsing George W. Bush in 2000, which at the time I thought was interesting for a Democrat. It became less interesting when this Democrat supported Bush in 2004, and John McCain in 2008.
And I remember the Steve LaBrake scandal. LaBrake was Greco's Housing aide who ended up going to jail after being convicted of more than 25 counts of accepting bribes and gratuities in a housing scandal that damaged the city for years.
Greco had nothing to do with that. But he didn't really seem to know what was going on.
To quote from Mary Jo Malone's column on this story in the Times in 2001:
The way Greco knows them, a public official can have a messy private life, and it's his business — even if it poses a huge conflict with public business.
Greco will be 68 on Sept. 14. He complained after last week's news conference that he was feeling old, but nobody should think this means he is slowing down. It means that he doesn't understand just how much the rules have changed since he was mayor the last time, 30 years ago.
We don't wink and look away the way we used to.
Folks, that was written more than 8 years ago! The recent article has a lot about how being Mayor was the high point of Greco's life. And that's great. And a lot of people have extremely fond memories of Greco's time in office, going back to the his first term in the 1960's up until his last time in office in 2003.
But is it what the people of Tampa want in 2011? Maybe they do. And then Greco should run, since apparently 30 people a day are badgering him to do so.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.