Deveron Gibbons is a smooth talker.
I write this at the risk of appearing to stereotype. Gibbons is an African-American, and there is a horrible political caricature of the slick black candidate that comes to mind for some.
But Gibbons is engaging as hell, as he proved during the first major candidate forum for the 2009 St. Petersburg election season last week. He also busts stereotypes: He is a Republican from the 'hood who talks about lower taxes and more freedom. He works for a business that some people consider usurious (Amscot payday lending) but has no problem putting it out there for folks to deal with, touting its jobs across the I-4 corridor.
Gibbons is well known in St. Petersburg political circles (he was appointed to just about every board in Pinellas County, it seems) but had been the mystery candidate in the race until last week. That's because he has undertaken what appears to be a variation on the Rose Garden strategy, declining to speak in-depth with the press, using a campaign surrogate to interface with reporters while he gathered campaign contributions from all over the country. His haul? A St. Pete record $115,625 from more than 500 contributors.
Immediately, some of his opponents set on him. Much of that money came from outside of St. Petersburg, some cried. The Gibbons campaign parsed back by saying that 344 St. Pete resident donated. (They're both right; lots of smaller contributors from the 'Burg and the big bucks from out of town.)
The big question mark for the Gibbons campaign is the "gravitas" thing. Gibbons is known as being a political operative, a mover and shaker, but not necessarily the type of person who should be running city government. Does he have the experience and seriousness to be mayor? Can he carry the city's Democratic African-American preincts as a Republican who supported Mitt Romney in the last presidential election? Will he just run a stealth campaign and let the brilliant political media consultant Adam Goodman (with whom I have worked in the past) create a mayoral image on television?
So back to that first major public appearance for candidate Gibbons. Out at the Tradewinds Island resort on St. Pete Beach, flanked by five other candidates, he was engaging and inspirational, riveting the audience with an answer to a Bartlett Park resident's question about the murderous violence in that neighborhood that claimed the life of a young girl a few weeks ago.
"This is a difficult question for me to respond to, and the reason why is I'm born, raised and bred right in Bartlett Park," Gibbons said. "Let me take you back maybe 15 years ago, there was a young man named Larry Waller, who lived in my neighborhood, playing basketball on the basketball court with me ... at BArtlett Park, guy runs up and shoots him — in — the — head. I'm standing there. I'm 11 years old."
"I could go on and on and on and on," Gibbons said.
Brilliant. Without giving details of a crimefighting platform (would he reinstate high-speed chases? would he have more involvement by the Sheriff's Office in fighting street-level drug sales?) Gibbons sounded both sympathetic to the plight of Midtown residents and tough on crime for angry white voters who feel the police department is being reined in by current Mayor Rick Baker. He scores points for not only understanding the impact of the city's drug-fueled violence but witnessing it firsthand.
What does it matter that he was short on details, or started talking about problems such as BayWalk without ever getting to an answer or solution? That the top political writer for the St. Petersburg Times in the audience noted via Twitter "Okay, I'll add Deveron Gibbons to the non-snoozer list. Just not sure he said much"? That he said he opposes tax increases but wants to keep the Rays with a new stadium in the same breath?
There's still a lot of campaigning to get to be done, but for now, we have to keep our eye on Deveron Gibbons, for better or worse.
