Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Tom JacksonAugust 30, 2016

The impression I get is people have the wrong idea about primary elections. To apply a sports analogy, people — I’d call them voters, except they’re plainly not — think of primaries as the exhibition season. This is not without solid foundation. I mean, they do sort of look like the preseason. Starry-eyed unknowns hoping […]

Joe HendersonAugust 28, 2016

I will be paying attention to a lot of things during Tuesday’s primary election. The weather, however, will not be high on the list. Even with storms in Tuesday’s forecast, it may not affect the turnout that much. As of Sunday, voters cast nearly 104,000 ballots in Hillsborough County for the primary election, either by […]

Keith MorelliJune 29, 2016

The collecting began last year, and the contributions flowed into Tampa Bay incumbent constitutional officers focused winning this fall’s elections and keeping their jobs for four more years. By last week, when qualifying ended, nearly a dozen had raked in close to $900,000, ready to wage war with challengers to their positions as sheriffs, tax […]

Mitch PerryApril 14, 2016

Tom Lee is facing eviction from the state Legislature this fall due to redistricting, but now says he is seriously eyeing a possible run for office in Hillsborough County in 2016. The Brandon Republican told FloridaPolitics he decide within the next few weeks where his political destination lies, and it could be a county commission seat. “I’m thinking […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterFebruary 16, 2016

There may be a month until Florida’s presidential preference primary, but thousands of Sunshine State voters are already casting their ballots. Elections offices across the state have sent about 1.8 million absentee, or vote by mail, ballots this election cycle. About 47 percent of those ballots went to registered Republicans; while 40 percent were sent […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 22, 2015

The percentage of young people who voted in last year’s midterm elections was 19.9 percent, the lowest ever recorded, and significantly below the 24 percent who voted in 2010. At a news conference held at King High School in North Tampa on Tuesday, Michael Malanga, USF Student Body Vice President, was asked why he believed that so few […]

Mitch PerryAugust 4, 2015

Fourteen Republican candidate for president met Monday night at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., last night. It was the equivalent of political speed-dating, (by the way, do those things happen anymore? I did it twice in the early aughts, and what I remember from the experience was how weary I was after standing up and moving to […]

Mitch PerryApril 16, 2015

Thomas Scott, a former Tampa city councilman and Hillsborough County commissioner, says he is seriously considering a run for the Hillsborough County Commission District 6 seat next year. “It’s going to be interesting,” Scott told Florida Politics on Wednesday afternoon, when he attended the Fight for 15 rally in Tampa’s Copeland Park that attracted hundreds of people. […]

Mitch PerryMarch 31, 2015

Former Tampa City Councilman and Hillsborough County Commission Thomas Scott has been appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to the Florida Elections Commission. The 61-year-old Scott is senior pastor at the 34th Street Church of God in East Tampa. He’s been out of politics for four years after his first city council term ended in 2011. […]

Mitch PerryMarch 5, 2015

The question one has to ask after reading just the summary of the Justice Department report on the goings-on with the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department is: How many other municipal law enforcement agencies act this way in America? If you want the headline from Wednesday to read that Justice concluded that the Ferguson PD violated no federal laws in […]

Tag: Craig Latimer

Tom Jackson: Maybe if we thought of primaries as playoffs …

Joe Henderson: Some pre-primary thoughts for Hillsborough County

Unopposed local constitutional officers to return nearly $900,000 in contributions

Tom Lee is considering a run in Hillsborough County this year – but for what seat?

Voter registration deadline looms for Florida’s presidential primary as millions begin casting ballots

On National Voter Registration Day, Kathy Castor and Craig Latimer try to motivate millennials to vote

Mitch Perry Report for 8.4.15 — Political speed date dialing in Manchester

Tom Scott looking at run for Hillsborough County District 6 seat

Rick Scott taps Tom Scott for Florida Elections Commission

Mitch Perry Report for 3.5.15 — Ferguson’s ugly legacy