When your political opposition appears to behave politically, ya gotta pounce.

It's instinct, and it'll probably serve you well down the road… even if political mailers down the road make mountains out of molehills — or, as is the case this week, a nefarious political scandal out of a $500 grant.

Earlier this week, the bulk of the St. Petersburg City Council supported granting the local Democratic Party $531 to bring in more Florida-friendly landscaping. It was part of a Community Redevelopment Area program the city has implemented in not-so-pretty parts of St. Pete on the outskirts of downtown, a program that automatically puts certain tax dollars raised locally toward a spate of projects, including efforts to improve the aesthetic of the area.

So when the local Dems, who are headquartered on First Avenue North between 20th and 21st streets, asked for several hundred bucks, the council didn't think too much about it, said Councilman Karl Nurse.

“It's important to remember the goal was to improve the exterior of the buildings along the corridor," he told CL. "From our perspective we didn't really care what the buildings were and we didn't have any rules as to what the buildings were, whether it was a church or nonprofit, the goal was to improve the appearance of the corridor, and that's what begins to bring the corridor back.”

The problem?

All but one of the eight-member council are Democrats.

The lone Republican on the dais, Ed Montanari, objected.

“Money’s fungible. You can spend money to help them make their building look better and that frees up other funds for political activity,” he said last week.

Local GOP leaders, of course, went to town.

Nurse said this wasn't the first time a local governing body granted money to a political party.

2012, anyone?

“Pinellas County gave the Republican National Committee $600,000 when they put their convention on in Tampa," he said. "That wasn't about whether they were Republicans. It was about good economic development. ”

On Thursday, Democratic Executive Committee Chair Susan McGrath announced they were withdrawing their application.

In the scheme of things, especially compared to the amount of money the city is doling out under this fund, it's not really a big deal.

"The irony is, what you're talking about is $531 out of about $316,000 of public money, which was going to leverage three and a half million dollars of private money. So, I'm not going to get too worked up over 500 bucks," Nurse said. "We have bigger fish to fry, so if that's what stands between helping to try to turn around the inner city, we'll move on and do something else."

This article appears in Aug 18-25, 2016.