Moments before Dick Greco was to give a speech announcing his unprecedented fifth campaign for mayor of Tampa last November, it was difficult to navigate through the swarm of bodies in the lobby of the InterContinental Hotel.
Acknowledging the size of the crowd, Greco political consultant Vic DiMaio observed that John Kerry didn't draw nearly as many people when he appeared in Tampa during his 2004 candidacy for president.
But John Kerry never conducted business over a café con leche and Cuban toast.
Greco's 15-minute speech to hundreds of adoring onlookers was the biggest event to date in the race to succeed Pam Iorio for mayor of Tampa this election season. But the 77-year-old's entrance into the contest was also a defining moment — his candidacy a barometer of where the majority of Tampa residents see their city now.
Is "America's next greatest city" ready to settle for the human political equivalent of comfort food?
For all the joy the genial Ybor City native brings to people, his candidacy is divisive. Many Tampa residents — particularly those who weren't born in the Cigar City — question the community's devotion to an able public servant who some contend was winding down in the final years of his last term, which ended eight years ago. And the City Hall that Greco hopes to inhabit in March is a different place than it was when he departed the scene in 2003, when property values were flourishing and business projects were easily green-lighted.
But Greco's experience does contribute to a very rich field of mayoral candidates: Five of the six have occupied political office or do so currently. "It's rare that you have a field as accomplished as all of these," observes USF Political Science Professor Susan McManus.
And if Greco must counter criticism that his candidacy is a step backwards, the other candidates face concerns they'll need to answer as well.
Greco: Blast from the past
For months, Greco and former Tampa area Congressman Jim Davis were, according to rumor, the heavyweights poised to get into the race. But shortly after the November elections, Davis dropped out. "The job would require 150 percent energy," he said, explaining he could only give "110 percent."
City finances will loom large in the race. According to neighborhood activist Randy Baron, the budget will be the most critical issue: "Everything flows from there." And with revenues likely to be reduced further, some analysts question whether Greco is the best man for these times.
GOP political consultant & CL blogger Chris Ingram (who has contributed to Bob Buckhorn's campaign) says that, based on past performance, Greco might be the worst. "Greco's record does not reflect a penchant for cuts and fiscal conservatism. If anything, he's the biggest spender in the race," referring to the Channelside-Ybor trolley, Centro Ybor and Raymond James Stadium, all projects initiated under Greco's watch.
But conventional wisdom says that Greco will make it to the run-off after the March 1 election. The real battle is who will get to face him.
Ferlita: Pro-growth and pro-neighborhood?
Rose Ferlita shares similarities with the former Mayor Greco. At 65, she's a hometown girl with deep roots in Tampa. A self-described political moderate (and the only registered Republican in the nonpartisan race), the former City Council member and County Commissioner has out-fundraised everyone in the race (though Greco has been in the contest for a much shorter time and out-raised everyone in December).
Ferlita disagrees with those who say one has to be either pro-growth or pro-neighborhood. She points to the neighborhood where her campaign headquarters resides, Seminole Heights, which has benefited from the influx of flourishing new restaurants and bars.
"We're all going to say we want to create jobs, and we do," she says. "What we need is to enable neighborhoods, enable expansions of current businesses, encourage other businesses to come in. That's how we create jobs."
Like all of the major candidates save for City Council Chair Thomas Scott, Ferlita supports a ban on panhandling on street medians, a stance she originally expressed when the County Commission debated the issue last summer.
Buckhorn: Talking tough
Ferlita's colleague on the Tampa City Council from 1999-2003, Bob Buckhorn, also supports the ban, but he was the only candidate who issued a press release announcing it. He paid homage to one of his political heroes, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, stating that the "broken windows" theory of combating crime — which Giuliani employed to sometimes brutal effect by cracking down on crimes like aggressive panhandling — is the way to stop larger crimes.
"In my view, a panhandling environment is a disorderly environment and sends the message that people may do as they please and get away with it," said Buckhorn in his release. "Well, that will not be the case on my watch."
The tough talk resembles the Buckhorn from over a decade ago, when on council he led the successful fight to enact what became known as the "six-foot rule," a law that dictates there be a six-foot distance between strippers and patrons in adult night clubs in Tampa. These days Buckhorn tries to play down his role in that legislation (which the City Council unanimously approved), and it's debatable how significant it will be for his candidacy.
More than any other candidate, the 52-year-old has established himself as the Anti-Dick Greco candidate, reminding voters at every turn that they can go backward (to Greco), or move forward (presumably with him).
Turanchik: Wild card
Like Buckhorn, Ed Turanchik is not a Tampa native (Buckhorn hails from Virginia, Turanchik from Ohio). In December he became the first candidate to deliver a position paper on what he would do as mayor, and nobody displays more enthusiasm about his ideas for helping the city progress.
Known best for his advocacy of transportation alternatives, Turanchik can be a wild card. As a leading proponent of the Tampa/Orlando high-speed rail project, he'd been considered a supporter of the transit tax for light rail all year long. But he bitterly criticized the idea a week after the vote, telling CL that he now believes light rail will never work in Tampa, and instead is talking up bus rapid transit. And he's also been the harshest in speaking out against public employee benefits.
After Greco won the Police Benevolent Association endorsement, Turanchik wrote on his Facebook page that "the union's main focus is on cost of living increases, step increases and pensions… to me, the last thing public employees should be thinking about in this environment are pay raises."
And in an interview with CL in early December, Turanchik said he believed too many people at City Hall live an entitled life. He called for an end to cost-of-living increases, as well as an end to unlimited accruals of sick leave and vacation time, saying city employees have "overly" generous compensation packages. "No one in the private sector gets unlimited accruals of vacation and sick leave. That's gotta be changed." He says he wants to do a full-scale evaluation of the pay scales and benefit packages to align them with the private sector.
Scott: The equal-rights question
Tampa City Council Chairman Thomas Scott has actually been running for mayor longer than anyone in the race (though some say Buckhorn's been unofficially running for years). Scott is ending his first term on the council after serving on the Hillsborough County Commission for over 10 years, making him the candidate with the longest amount of uninterrupted public service going into the race.
Reverend Scott, senior pastor of the 34th Street Church of God in Tampa for over three decades, has certainly shown growth in recent years as he's tried to mold his image as a city leader. Scott was part of a notorious Hillsborough County Commission panel that voted to ban gay pride back in 2005, and had a record of never supporting gay issues.
But in November of 2009 the City Council debated whether to include gender identity and expression in the city's human rights law, which would essentially ban workplace discrimination against those who change genders.
After hearing some of the most homophobic diatribes ever given at a council meeting from members of the community who opposed the motion, Scott said the issue was about discrimination, and thus he had no choice but to support it. "I believe love covers multitudes," he said at the time. "I believe that Jesus loved every person in this room. I want to ask those here: If a person has a sex change, will you accept him at their church? Or will you turn them away? Or would you require them to go back to their original gender?"
In an interview last week, Scott would not directly answer the question about his support of the Ronda Storms measure to ban gay pride in '05, but emphasized that he absolutely was not homophobic. "My brother was gay. He died from AIDS. I took care of him in the last year of his life… very painful time," he told CL, his voice cracking slightly. "So it's not an issue as to whether I'm anti-gay. That's not the case at all."
Richardson: Mystery man
Scott would be the first black mayor of Tampa if elected, which would also be the case if somehow the world gets knocked off its axis and businessman Arthur Richardson wins the race. Richardson has collected almost no money and made few media appearances since entering the race.
However, he recently appeared with the other candidates at a forum organized by the GaYBOR Coalition on Jan. 14 (where all the photos for this story were taken), and has told CL that he will be present at this paper's mayoral debate taking place Feb. 10 (details in info box above).
The fusillade of debates is just beginning. Bob Buckhorn says he doesn't feel the excitement in the city as in 2003, when he said there were 63 such forums held. But with the election just six weeks away and the future of Tampa at stake, look for interest in the race to mount.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.