Linda Saul-Sena’s public persona is that of a sunny optimist. Serving on Tampa’s City Council for 19 out of the last 23 years, she’s been blessed with never having had to sweat out a serious challenge in any of her five runs for office in Tampa. But facing a well-financed incumbent in Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Ken Hagan in their race for the countywide District 5 seat, Saul-Sena seems to relish dismantling her finely polished image by going negative.

Saul-Sena has a partner in criticism in independent Jim Hosler, a former Hillsborough County planner who said he specifically got into the race because “Ken doesn’t work hard.”

In separate encounters with CL, both candidates reeled off statistics about how many meetings they say Hagan has failed to attend in his duties as County Commissioner, claiming he’s missed a majority of sessions when serving on the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, and they both say he failed to attend any meetings when he represented the commission at the scandal-plagued Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance.

When asked to respond, Hagan pauses before saying “I’m probably one of the hardest-working elected officials and candidates, and I think I missed one board meeting in eight years. I think that can stand up to any board member.”

What countywide voters make of those charges against Hagan is one of the factors that make this perhaps the most interesting local race in the Tampa Bay area this year.

This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.