Mitch Perry
Tampa City Councilwoman Lisa Montelione, who was just re-elected without opposition to a second four-year term in her District 7 seat this past winter, said Tuesday she’s running for the Democratic nomination for the House District 63 race, a seat now held by Republican incumbent Shawn Harrison.
“The issues facing our city and the entire Tampa Bay region are too big for us to continue waiting for the current dysfunctional Legislature to solve,” Montelione said in a prepared statement. “Throughout my time on the Tampa City Council, I’ve always sought to find solutions by bringing us together around common ground, rather than allow gridlock on an issue. I will take that same approach in Tallahassee in order to move our community forward and provide the leadership we so desperately need.”
Montelione, 54, is a native New Yorker (Long Island, specifically) who moved to Hillsborough County when she was 25.
In 2011, she entered relatively late in the race for the New Tampa seat in District 7, where she was won her first four-year term to the City Council. This past year she won re-election without drawing an opponent. She has been a member of the Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization, and has been an outspoken advocate for more transit solutions for the city of Tampa.
There is already a Democrat in the HD 63 race, Mike Reedy, who’s been endorsed by a number of high-profile Democrats.
The seat is one that is definitely considered winnable for Hillsborough Democrats. Harrison won it in 2010, lost it to Mark Danish in 2012, then defeated Danish to return back to Tallahassee in 2014. Democrats feel that it’s one of nearly a dozen House seats that can turn with a heavier voting presence that Democrats have delivered in the past in presidential election years.
By declaring her candidacy, Montelione acknowledges that she will not fulfill her full second term on City Council. By law, she must resign her council seat next November, win or lose. The primary against Reedy will take place in August.
