"If you want to be popular with the editorial boards, nothing will make you as popular with the intelligentsia in America as 'compromise.' The press is constantly urging compromise. They root for it like it is the highest possible virtue, the sign of true maturity and achievement in life. I have found in government that it pays to be stubborn" —Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, in Tampa at the Republican National Committee Summer Meeting on August 4.
"Now compromise doesn't mean in Solomon like fashion we just split the baby. What it means is you address the problem, you do what I did as a commissioner. You lay out the facts, you sit down, and you build a consensus." —Mark Sharpe speaking to the press after announcing his candidacy for Congress on August 15
There's no question that Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe's brand of conservatism runs a bit more moderate than your average GOP member of Congress circa 2011. But that's hardly the largest issue he has to confront in his uphill battle to knock off Kathy Castor in Florida's 11th Congressional District next year.
The 51-year-old Tampa native kept supporters and press in some suspense on the morning of Aug. 15, moments before he was to address the thickening crowd at the Buddy Brew coffeehouse and announce his intentions for the coming year. Though his candidacy had been considered a sure thing for most of the summer, the commissioner had sounded tentative just days before his scheduled announcement date.
But four minutes into his speech last week, his commitment to the race was clear. The question remains whether the 11th District will be redrawn in a fashion that gives the moderate Republican a fighting chance. The frustration with gerrymandered Congressional districts led Floridians last year to overwhelmingly pass the Fair District Florida amendments, which call for all of the districts to be drawn up fairly and contiguously next year.
District 11 currently encompasses most of the city of Tampa and its suburbs and the shoreline of Southeast County, but also includes the urban neighborhoods of South St. Pete and neighborhoods in and around Bradenton.
GOP political consultant Mark Proctor, a close advisor to Sharpe, says if the district were redrawn to be exclusively in Hillsborough County, "I would give him a decent chance." Another consultant, Chris Ingram, says the race is still Castor's to lose, but says if any Republican in Hillsborough could have a chance, it's Sharpe.
Patrick Manteiga, the editor of La Gaceta and a Democrat, says if the GOP were wise in their redistricting, they could definitely make the 11th a competitive seat. But he doesn't believe the Republicans in nearby districts (Dennis Ross, Gus Bilirakis) will go for it. "Everybody is selfish and greedy when it comes to redistricting," says Manteiga.
There's no question that Sharpe has crossover appeal. During an appearance with this reporter on WMNF's Last Call program in June, his responses on transportation in particular won him new fans on the left-leaning station, including one Pinellas County woman named Annie who called in to say "this is one of the most amazing conversations from a politician in such a long time." Another caller praised him for being a "voice of reason."
This won't be Sharpe's first congressional campaign. He lost three straight runs for the District 11 seat in the '90s, though he was relatively competitive in 1992 and 1994 against Democrat Sam Gibbons. He says that he was ready to move on after the '94 loss, but then the equation changed after Gibbons retired in 1996. "I probably shouldn't have run," he now concedes of the '96 election, which he lost badly to Jim Davis. But he says it all worked out for the best, as he ended meeting his wife Stephanie the following year. Marriage and kids came after that, followed by a career as a teacher.
Then in early 2004, GOP political consultant Proctor, who had advised Sharpe back in 1996 not to run a third time for office, believing it could taint him forever, contacted him when Democrat Pat Frank announced that she would be stepping down from her seat on the County Commission to run for Clerk of the Circuit Court. Sharpe won that year, then again in 2006. He had his toughest fight in the county last year, not against a Democrat, but in his own party, as he was "primaried" by Josh Burgin, a candidate many people considered a stalking horse for GOP powerbroker Sam Rashid.
The Burgin/Rashid team wanted to inflict a hurt on Sharpe for violating what the recent debt debate in Washington exposed nationally: that it's unacceptable for a Republican to support any sort of tax. Sharpe, along with Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, were the public faces of the transit tax that aimed to bring a light rail system to Hillsborough County and spark a mass transit system throughout the Bay area.
The measure went down hard, losing by 19 points. In retrospect, Sharpe admits that "mistakes were made." He thinks that the plan was "too top down," and a half-cent (as opposed to the full cent) tax would have been the better way to go. But Sharpe doesn't believe the efforts were in vain.
However, transit advocates have seen little in Hillsborough County to excite them in the wake of the crushing loss. In fact, HART has cut some bus routes and will have to cut many more if there's not a modest increase in property taxes.
This is where some say Sharpe tries to have it both ways, trying to appease his party while only at times demonstrating his independence. Patrick Manteiga says he's viewed as somewhat unconventional, but "when you look at his voting, it really isn't that radical."
In June, Sharpe joined with his GOP county commissioner colleague Sandy Murman as the only members of the HART board to reject the property tax increase. But he reversed course in August when he realized that if the agency didn't raise the rates (a grand total of 41 cents per $90,000 household) critical bus service would be cut.
Sharpe's vision on transportation transcends rail and bus. Bicycling activist Alan Snel calls the commissioner "an incredible advocate" for cycling, and says that he understands, as do most forward-thinking cities, that bicycling is another transportation option. Snel also says Sharpe showed leadership when he was able to get the BOCC to pass a bicycle safety action plan just five days after cyclist Diane Vega was killed, one in a series of tragic cycling deaths in Hillsborough.
Sharpe is a study in contrasts. He's a political junkie who's always considered Congress to be a dream job. But in recent years he's warmed to the more direct impact he feels from serving people in his community on the local level.
Manteiga says Sharpe is one of the more thoughtful Republicans on the board, but in his opinion that's not saying much. "The standards for being a statesman are less, the standards for compromise are a lot less."
Proctor says, "There are times when I've strongly disagreed with him," and he knows others in the local party who feel the same way. But Proctor says that even Sharpe's GOP critics respect him, because they admire people who will stand up for what they believe in. Sharpe fell out of favor with the party for supporting not only the 2010 transit tax, but increases in impact fees in 2006 that hadn't been raised in nearly 20 years.
Mixed among the crowd of Republicans and media at Buddy Brew was Democrat Dee Layne, an environmental activist who lost to Sharpe in his first successful election in 2004. She says she's worked a lot with him since that time, and that the County Commissioner simply "gets it."
She's also worked with Kathy Castor on some environmental issues, but said she was disappointed when working with the Congresswoman on environmental concerns regarding construction of the Cypress Creek Town Center in Wesley Chapel, saying Castor's staff failed to return calls. "I needed the power of her office and it just didn't happen." (The Castor campaign sent CL correspondence between herself and the EPA indicating she has been vigilant on the issue.)
But the fact is, there are plenty of citizens in District 11 who are happy to have a proud Democrat in Washington, the only such Representative in all of Tampa Bay.
Republican political consultant April Schiff says Castor's "constituency likes her a lot, so for anybody to take her out it's going to be difficult." Schiff also says she detects that the Tampa-area Congresswoman is "reaching out to everybody, trying to have a broader appeal" — going for more global gravitas with trips to Afghanistan and Israel.
Castor declined to comment directly on Sharpe's candidacy last week, but said she'd heard that several Republicans might be joining the race. (Eddie Adams, who lost to Castor the last two times out, told CL that he will definitely run again next year, and state House Republican Shawn Harrison said he is contemplating entering the race.)
When Sharpe is asked his thoughts about Castor, he is gracious, saying he got along fine with her when they served together on the BOCC from 2004-2006, and that Castor's mother, Betty, was somebody he followed in politics when he was younger. But he is at odds with the Congresswoman on the health care reform bill, the fate of which will likely be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sharpe calls the bill "a huge mistake," adding, "Now is not the time to be trying to create a large national health care plan." But he acknowledges that it's not right to ignore the millions who are currently uninsured.
No doubt other issues will arise between them should they face each other next year.
