Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena has announced that she's raised $79,282 in fundraising in her maiden attempt on getting on the Hillsborough County Commission, where she faces Republican Ken Hagan and independent Jim Hosler (Don Kruse is attempting to knock off Hagan in the GOP Primary in August).
In a press release, Saul-Sena said,
“I am very pleased and encouraged by the results of our efforts in the first quarter, stated Saul-Sena. “Even though we started our campaign after the quarter began and worked through start-up challenges we quickly got organized and went to work. I am very proud of my team and extremely appreciative of the outpouring of support and encouragement I have received from such a diverse network of people throughout the county who all share the same belief - it’s time for new leadership on the County Commission!
The St. Pete Times quotes Hagan as saying that he raised "about $30,000" in the first quarter of 2010, putting him around $250,000 total.
We spoke with Jim Hosler recently after he announced his candidacy, but we're still not certain why the former Republican turned independent is running against Hagan for Jim Norman's current district 5 seat, as opposed to running against Mark Sharpe in county-wide district 7. We write that because of the alleged unhappiness with Sharpe amongst local Republicans for supporting so prominently the one cent sales tax referendum on transportation this fall.
Hagan himself is on record as having supported putting the measure on the November ballot, but he's also been quoted as saying that as constituted he doesn't think the measure would pass, and has seemed to lose any enthusiasm for it ever since several projects that were to be included in the 25% allocated to road improvements were deleted from the proposal.
Sharpe's stance in support of rail has not found support in a lot of Republican strongholds, yet again, no Hillsborough Republican is challenging him.
Meanwhile Hosler, a former Republican, can seemingly only take votes away from Hagan in the fall, potentially aiding Saul-Sena.
