Bob Buckhorn still considering 2018 run for governor

For several years, it’s been a given that Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn would try to take his brand of leadership to a new level in 2018 by seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

Facing just token opposition in his re-election bid, Buckhorn won with nearly 96 percent of the vote in March, setting himself up perfectly for a presumptive run for higher office.

But, as Jeb Bush said recently, stuff happens.

It began in late April when the Tampa Bay Times reported that his police department, led by departing “rock star” Chief Jane Castor, had disproportionately cited black bicyclists at an alarming rate in comparison with the rest of the city’s general population. That led to the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the TPD, with a report slated for the end of the year.

Then came a tough investigative report by WTSP Channel 10’s Noah Pransky in early September on the influence of Beth Leytham, one of the mayor’s closest advisers, including a video exchange between Pransky and the mayor that nobody would call one of Buckhorn’s finest moments. Then there was the lackluster second-quarter fundraising with his political action committee, One Florida. It all led La Gaceta editor/publisher Patrick Mantegia to speculate recently that it appeared  the mayor had packed in the idea of running in 2018.

Apparently, though, the dream hasn’t died yet.

In an interview with Dara Kam of the News Service of Florida, Buckhorn was asked directly whether he’s considering running for governor.

‘”I don’t know. I’m looking at it,” he said. Though he loves being Tampa’s mayor, he said he hasn’t stopped thinking his talents could step up to Tallahassee.

“But I also think that skill set is transferable to a larger stage in a fashion, in a way that I think would resonate with voters. More focus on results. More focused on doing what you said you were going to do. Less concerned about scoring political points. That’s what mayors do.”

That’s been his rhetoric for the past year: that he’s a no-nonsense centrist less interested in politics than public policy. In his embrace of South Florida U.S. Rep.  Patrick Murphy for Senate, he’s driving home his belief that Democrats’ only chance to get elected in Florida statewide is by embracing the center.

Some of hose who support the mayor, though, worry he’s already running behind after alienating some of his hometown Democratic base by his initial resistance to  a citizens TPD review board. When criticism came over his initial executive order creating the board, Buckhorn called them “fringe groups.” The included the ACLU, the Council on America-Islamic Relations, and the NAACP, though this month Buckhorn emphasized he wasn’t including the NAACP in those remarks.

Although he won’t satisfy those same activist groups that wanted the board to have subpoena power, Buckhorn has appeared to make amends with City Council members who in a rare display of resistance criticized him for creating the CRB in late August without consulting them. Last week he said he’ll give council four selections on the nine-member main board, but retain the power to name two alternates. His original proposal to give the council two selections didn’t play well, and Council Chairman Frank Reddick and Councilwoman Yolie Capin still don’t believe four choices is enough, but lost that vote last week.

Another potential sore point for Democrats was his decided lack of enthusiasm for Charlie Crist, the party’s 2014 gubernatorial nominee. Buckhorn says he voted for the former Republican governor, but didn’t campaign for Crist at all and made it known he wasn’t a fan. “I am staying on the sidelines with that one,” Buckhorn told the Tampa Bay Times’ Adam Smith in July 2014 on Bay News 9. “I have to work with both Republican governors and Republican legislators.”

Buckhorn also lent his name to a re-election fundraiser for GOP Attorney General Pam Bondi, another potential strike against him in a 2018 Democratic primary.

But that’s a worry then. Unifying the city now would do wonders for his bona fides against the likes of Buddy Dyer, Gwen Graham and any other possible Democratic gubernatorial aspirants in three years, which will mark 20 years since the party controlled that office.