No, Steve LeBrake hasn’t officially came out to endorse Dick Greco for Mayor. LaBrake is the former Housing Director who went to jail in a scandal that rocked the housing department during Greco’s last term in office last decade.
But you might come to that conclusion if you go the mock website MayorDickGreco.com.
That LaBrake “endorsement” is featured right next to the slogan, The Once and Future King, Never Actually Convicted and Ready To Go Again, and is the brainchild of local freelance writer Eric Sturm.
In a brief interview with CL Friday morning, Sturm said he created the satirical site as a launching pad for Tampa residents to take seriously who they are going to vote for in Tampa’s election on March 1. “I think this mayoral election is incredibly important to the future of Tampa… There’s been economic difficulties in Tampa and a lot of challenges and a lot of key questions about the future…I just wanted to add value to the election process by basically expanding the conversation.”
Sturm says he’s never met Greco personally and is basing his satire on his media persona, which Sturm admits might be different than the man himself. A native from Chicago, Sturm reflects a portion of the Tampa electorate unimpressed by Greco’s resume which includes running Tampa in two different eras, for a total of 15 years and four successful elections.
I’ve found that though not by any means universally correct, Tampa natives do hold Greco in higher estimation than out of towners. There are a couple of them running against Greco this spring: Ed Turanchik hails from Ohio, Bob Buckhorn from Virginia.
This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2011.
