At a recent candidates' forum in Progress Village, the first time the three Democrats running for the Hillsborough County Commission District 3 seat had gathered together this campaign season, not a word was uttered about incumbent Commissioner Kevin White's troubles from a year ago.
That's when White, 45, lost a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former aide, Alyssa Ogden. When his fellow commissioners discovered that Hillsborough County would be on the hook for White's $425,000 in legal fees, they sued him to recoup some of that money. White sued the county right back.
Neither of White's opponents — former state Senator Les Miller or Valerie Goddard, chair of the Hillsborough County Children's Board — dared bring up the issue. Nor have they on the campaign stump. The only criticism that Goddard delivered at the debate was one she's made frequently on the campaign trail — that Kevin White hasn't been there for his constituents in a district that contains some of the city and county's poorest neighborhoods.
"I'll be responsive. When you call my office, I'll be sure to respond to your calls," she told the crowd of approximately 50 people, mostly African-American, at the St. James AME Church off of 78th Street. "I've met with some of the residents, and they've shared their frustrations of not being able to get calls returned." The 45-year-old Goddard has been campaigning hard for nearly a year, going back to September of 2009. She's had to, because unlike her two male opponents she's a political neophyte. And work she has, integrating herself into various Hillsborough County Democratic groups.
"The more that people realize that I'm in the race and they get a chance to meet and talk to me, we find that they're more apt to support us," she says on a recent Saturday morning in Tampa Heights. "And certainly as we're walking these neighborhoods, we have people as soon as they find out that we're running against Kevin White, say 'You got my vote!' I would say conservatively, with 8 out of 10 people, that's their response."
One prominent Hillsborough County black community activist, Michelle Williams, is in that camp. After watching the Progress Village debate last month, she told CL that she's been backing Goddard since "Day 1" of her candidacy.
"I really feel that our current Commissioner Kevin White, that he could have done more for his district," she lamented. "In the event that he does not remain in office, I think it will be a lesson learned of past mistakes. I really believe that he's learned from things that he's erred in… we're trying to get past it as a community, but right now I feel that Valerie will be the best candidate for District 3."
The question is whether the upstart Goddard can reach enough voters one on one to convince them to support her. Her message is focused, optimistic and full of detail.
But in Kevin White, she's not just running against a tainted incumbent. To many voters in the black community, White appears to be someone who got a raw deal from the media.
(White declined to be interviewed for this story. Though he'd initially seemed willing to take part, he decided against it after being reminded by an aide that a contributor to Creative Loafing's blog, The Daily Loaf, had photo-shopped an image of him wearing a pimp-daddy outfit in her posts about the sexual harassment suit.)
Edward Cooper owns Coop's Barber Shop on Nebraska Avenue (one of several barber shops and other businesses I visited in the neighborhood), and he's an outspoken Kevin White supporter. He's not sympathetic toward Alyssa Ogden, the former White aide. Although a Hillsborough jury agreed that White had made an unwanted sexual pass at Ogden while she attended a conference with him in Atlanta, Cooper's not buying it.
"She got on the plane, she accepts the ticket, she went to Atlanta and had a great time. She rode back with him on the bus, so what can I say? Come on man, it don't take a rocket scientist!"
Cooper says he knows and likes Les Miller. "But what did he do for 14 years in office?" he asks. He doesn't know much about Valerie Goddard.
But speak to some female voters and you get a different impression. Rene Brown owns the Ladies of the Sea Seafood and Soul Food Restaurant on MLK Blvd. Count her among those who think that White has neglected those who helped him get into office. She says she voted for him, but "he forgot who I was after he got elected."
Main Street in West Tampa is also known as Moses White Boulevard, named after the Tampa civil rights leader who happens to be Kevin White's grandfather.
Foster's is a barbershop on Main Street. A barber who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Ben, says White gets his hair cut there regularly, which he says helps him with his constituents. "If you never come down here, it's hard, but if you frequent the neighborhood, you have a better chance of winning."
Ben cuts White a break on the sexual harassment charge. "I mean, you have our former president, he did something similar to that, with Monica Lewinsky, and he weathered the storm, and now nobody even talks about that anymore, because the main thing is doing your job."
The White name and incumbency also provide a money advantage. At the beginning of this month, Goddard had less than $2,000 in the bank for the final stretch of the campaign, compared with White's $43,000 and Miller's $21,00.
White has used his cash to purchase ads in the black and Latin press — specifically in the Florida Sun-Bulletin and La Gaceta.
Vic DiMaio is a Democratic political consultant who has worked on White's previous political campaigns. He's not this year, but remains close to him. He says he wouldn't be surprised if the vote is tight, but says that, historically in Tampa, black voters don't turn on their own, especially when they are under heavy media scrutiny.
"I think that it's harder to vote that person out," DiMaio says. Jim Hargrett is the only elected official he can recall who was rejected by the community for a specific action, in his case his very public support for Jeb Bush back in 1998.
Though an African-American has generally held the District 3 seat, the area also has a substantial Latino and white population, making it the most diverse district on the board, encompassing North and East Tampa, as well as areas southeast of the city, like Progress Village and Palm River.
Les Miller, 59, is attempting to resuscitate his long political career by winning a County Commission seat.
He had a distinguished record as a state legislator, beginning in 1992 in the House and then in the Senate representing Hillsborough, Pinellas and parts of Manatee counties. But his career in politics was sidelined when he came in second to Kathy Castor in the 2006 race for Jim Davis' District 11 Congressional seat. Since before the 2006 election he's been at USF, where he serves as both director of community relations and student ombudsman.
Like Valerie Goddard, he's also heard from voters in District 3 that Kevin White often is MIA. "I would not be in this race had the Commissioner been doing a decent job, but people came to me," he says. In campaign debates, Miller hasn't been so explicit, but repeatedly mentions how his district office boasted one of the highest rates for constituent services.
In terms of policy prescriptions, Miller invokes a bit of yesteryear when he discusses the enterprise zones that were initiated when he was in the Legislature, working with local governments to bring jobs back into selected areas suffering from economic malaise. "That's what I'm hearing about, we're losing jobs," he says.
Both he and Goddard bemoan that Hillsborough (as well as the city of Tampa) haven't gotten their act together when it comes to dealing with one of the region's biggest problems — foreclosures.
Last month, both the county and the city of Tampa were told that they had less than three months to use federal stimulus money set aside to acquire foreclosed properties, after spending less than 60 percent of the $13 million they had received. That's a poor record compared to neighboring counties Pasco and Pinellas, who in the same time spent 97 and 87 percent respectively of the funds awarded them. (Last week Hillsborough finally announced it had committed the $19 million left in the fund, 29 days before the federal deadline.)
Goddard says that Tampa and Hillsborough have failed to collaborate, and to speak to those in the real estate industry. "The two entities began to plan, completely separate, never coming together to look at how best to collaborate, or leverage those dollars in that community in an impactful and effective manner. How do you do that without bringing the industry to the table with you?"
On the stump, White emphasizes that he has delivered for the citizens in District 3, and comments on the "wealth of experience" he brings to the seat, saying in Progress Village that he's been in public service "since infancy."
As has been reported for years, his years in public service haven't always been sunny. Although he boasts of having joined the Tampa Police Department, he never mentions that his employment ended with a resignation after officials determined he had violated pursuit policy in a chase that left a civilian injured. The accident victim sued the city and was paid $85,000,
He also talks about how he oversaw a $24 million monthly budget while working for Daimler/Chrysler. At the Progress Village forum, he took credit for getting funding for a recreation center in the neighborhood — "deliverables," in White-speak. He also boasted that the BOCC has appropriated millions of dollars in recent years to address some of the flooding issues that plague the economically impoverished area.
But on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. just north of downtown Tampa, there is so much more needed. Abdul-Rahim Abdullah, who runs the Max Modern Barber Shop, says he's been in the neighborhood for 25 years and has yet to see much improvement, regardless of who represents the area in local government. He says jobs are what's needed. "Slave labor is what's going to fuel the world and the country again, and that's why companies are moving to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka," he says while trimming the beard of one of the few customers he sees that day. "Not just for black folks, white folks, everyone's suffering. There are people with degrees who don't have any jobs. Kevin White can't do it. Pam Iorio can't do it. It's going to take Congress to create programs to put jobs in the community."
District 3 does have some of the county's poorest residents. Perhaps the greatest thing any commissioner can do is give them hope that anybody can make a difference.
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2010.