Peter Schorsch
Less than an hour ago, Bob Buckhorn was all but re-elected to a second term as mayor of his beloved Tampa. All that stands in his way is a tomato can of a write-in candidate to whom Buckhorn should send a thank-you note for entering the race, thereby allowing him the opportunity to expend the nearly $400,000 he has raised for his campaign. For a politician with an eye on running in 2018, there could be no better scenario.
As Cassius remarked in Shakespeare’s account of Julius Caesar, “He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus…”
Of course, it wasn’t always this way for Buckhorn and that’s what’s so remarkable about where he finds himself today.
Buckhorn is still only batting .500 as a candidate for elected office, having previously won two terms on the City Council and his 2011 mayoral win. In the L-column is a loss in a primary for a Florida House seat in 1992, a third-place finish in 2003’s five-way race for mayor, and a loss to Brian Blair in a 2004 County Commission race.
That’s right, Bob Buckhorn, perhaps the Democratic Party’s best hope in 2018 to take back the Governor’s Mansion, once lost to a man who dressed up as a bee and professionally wrestled. Today he is, arguably, the most powerful mayor in the state.
And don’t forget, Buckhorn wasn’t supposed to have won in 2011. Most political handicappers expected him to finish third behind Rose Ferlita and the ever-popular former mayor, Dick Greco (as I have crowed many times before, I predicted early on that Buckhorn would upset either Ferlita and Greco and win his dream job).
Instead, Bob Buckhorn is just a formality’s distance away from winning four more years in office.
Congratulations, Mr. Mayor.
