It's rare to see the executives, members of the editorial board, and a good deal of the Tampa office of the St. Petersburg Times all gathered together, but last night was a big one for Tampa Bay's leading newspaper, as they co-sponsored and co-produced the only televised debate so far in the Tampa mayor's race from Blake High.
Paul Tash, Neil Brown, down to editorial folks like Tim Nickens, Joni James, John Hill and Daniel Ruth were all in the house. And as anchored by Political Editor Adam C. Smith and Bay News 9's Al Reuschel, they should feel proud about the 90-minute debate, which finally saw the candidates move off their talking points and point out the differences with each other. You can get our take here.
Earlier in the day we were at the University of Tampa, which strictly speaking (to quote the late Edwin Newman) is a heckuva easier place to cover an event than the University of South Florida can be sometimes (I suppose the vast fewer students at UT is the reason for that). We checked out the Ambassador to Austria speak with students there – primarily about the WikiLeaks deal.
Governor Rick Scott's budget proposals seem to be going down fairly smoothly around the state. Not. Anyway, apparently he's heard from his fellow Republicans on one issue – school vouchers for all – which apparently has now been aborted.
the report here.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.