With just hours to go before the polls close tonight in the special District 58 House election between Democrat Janet Cruz and Republican Hunter Chamberlin, the local Tampa Web site Politics in Tampa revealed this morning that Cruz had lost the homestead exemption that she was claiming on a 2nd home in Tampa.
In response to a series of comments on the St. Pete Times Buzz Blog today referencing that report, Times reporter Janet Zink responded at 3:57 p.m. in the comments section that:
According to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser, the office's exemption committee denied Janet Cruz's homestead exemption for 2009 and 2010 for the house on Empedrado St., which is where her son lives. At this point, though, the office hasn't made any determination about whether Cruz owes money for taking the exemption in the years since 2003, when she got married and apparently moved into the home on San Miguel with her husband.
CL learned of these developments right before 5 p.m. today. Our attempts to speak with someone at the Property Appraiser's office were not responded to.
Stories about Cruz taking a second homestead exemption surfaced back in January, with Cruz responding at the time that though the second home was in her name and she paid the bills, it was for her 29-year-old son, Raymond, who lives at the Empedrado Street house, and that he was incapable of taking care of himself.
But in the same story that the Times reported on that, they quoted an official with the Property Appraiser's Office as saying they would investigate that situation. It now appears that that Office denied Cruz that exemption.
What does this all mean? Well, though Cruz remains the favorite with 100 minutes to go before the polls close, Hunter Chamberlin opted never to make this story an issue during the general election campaign. He told CL last week that the only thing he would mention on a personal level is that Cruz does not live in the district, whereas he does, in Seminole Heights.
If the story had come out on Monday, would it make any difference? Obviously, impossible to say. Pat Kemp supporters might be a bit wistful tonight, as Kemp lost by just 58 votes in her intense battle with Cruz back in January.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.