Drew Wilson
Republican activist and perpetual candidate Sharon Russ has filed to run for the heavily Democratic House District 70 seat held by termed-out Rep. Daryl Rouson.
Russ is no stranger to politics, at least in the Pinellas County portion of the district: She ran for St. Petersburg mayor in 2009 and challenged Karl Nurse for city council in 2013, but her campaigns nosedived. Russ never made the ballot in the mayoral race, and lost to Nurse 69-to-18 in the three-way Republican primary for the council seat.
Outside of politics, Russ has had a rough go of things. Records from the Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller show a string of eviction cases stretching from 1998 through 2013, alongside a 1998 aggravated assault charge that was dropped by the state. The county listed the court costs for that case as in collections in April 2015.
Russ will have to face Democratic St. Petersburg Councilman Wengay Newton in the election if she makes the ballot. Newton’s September finance report has not been posted, but through August, he had raised $12,424,. In District 70, the money will matter a lot less than a candidate’s political party on Election Day.
Voter statistics from 2014 give Democrats a 62 percent share of the electorate, compared with a 16 percent share for Republicans – 3.5 percent less than the number of District 70 voters with no party affiliation.
