We're not sure what political reporters in other parts of Florida are doing 10 days after the 2010 midterm (actually, we are, as we read many of their stories every day), but for those of us in Tampa, it's straight on to municipal elections taking place in approximately 3 1/2 months.
Last night we attended a fund-raising event for Sara Romeo, a declared candidate in District 1 in the city. You can read our report here. And earlier in the day we spoke with Jason Wilson, a 32-year-old emergency medical doc who works over at TGH who has a lot of enthusiasm as he decides to take the plunge into electoral politics.
When we speak with the candidates, we always ask their opinions about transportation, and what they think what awry with the referendum last week in Hillsborough County that the voters overwhelmingly rejected. In a guest op-ed, Gary Sasso, the chair of the group that spent lots of money pushing the measure, Moving Hillsborough Forward, shares his thoughts about what happened last week and what needs to happen next.
(in a complete aside, we have to give props to Jim Norman about this. Now hold on a second, let me explain. We attended a meeting with the members of the Tampa City Council and the Hillsborough County Commission a long time ago, where a disgusted Norman stormed out of the meeting when the discussion was about the transit tax, which had not been approved to go on the ballot at that time. We ran outside to chat with the former commissioner, who told CL that he had been knocking on all types of doors, and he said, "people are angry!" He actually said that a few times behind the dais during BOCC meetings as well, but I'll never forget how he said some people in the houses he was canvassing were so angry at the idea of getting their taxes raised. Whether the folks in Hillsborough were all angry or not last week, folks like Norman, and Ronda Storms for that matter, were pretty accurate in telling us they believed the measure would never pass).
And lastly today, we enjoyed reading the lead editorial in this morning's Tampa Tribune, where the writers again blast the idea of a Tampa Bay Buc game not being televised locally, because it's not sold out. The Trib if you'll recall, were huge cheerleaders in persuading the Hillsborough County community to vote for the 1996 CIT measure that paid for every cent of Raymond James Stadium. Now the Trib brings up that issue in their editorial, as they plead with them to "have a heart" and bestow upon the plebeians who paid for their yard a break by buying up the remaining tickets today so the game can be shown on Sunday.
the report here.
