Mitch Perry
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman‘s camp is using the “L-word” to describe Rick Baker‘s campaign — lying.
The former two-term mayor is accused of pulling an ad from Tampa Bay area radio stations after it falsely claimed that Kriseman blew off a NAACP event earlier this month.
“Rick Baker knowingly lied to voters,” Kriseman campaign manager Jacob Smith said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
The original radio ad featured civil rights activist and Baker supporter Sevell Brown asserting Kriseman “insulted the NAACP because he couldn’t be bothered to show up” at an event for the St. Pete chapter on Oct. 7.
As the Tampa Bay Times Charlie Frago reported Wednesday, that is untrue; Kriseman did appear at the event, although he did not RSVP in advance.
“It’s a desperate move by a flailing campaign,” Smith said of the ad. “We are disappointed, but not surprised, that desperate Rick Baker is willing to do anything — even lie — to get elected.”
The Baker camp disputed that any ads had been pulled. Instead, it resubmitted a new ad that omits the reference to the event, but still says: “Kriseman just insulted the NAACP.”
And adding insult to injury for the Kriseman camp, the new ad says Baker “will fight Donald Trump or anyone who stands in our way.”
“Not one station asked us to remove the radio ad detailing Rick Kriseman’s paltry ten-minute pop-in at the NAACP event,” said Nick Hansen. “We chose to update the ad to make sure listeners understand how insulted the NAACP’s leadership was at Rick Kriseman’s air of dismissal about their event. Kriseman wants this to go away; the black community will never forget. The Kriseman campaign hasn’t told the people of St. Petersburg the truth yet, so why would they start now.”
That updated spot is now appearing on WRXB 1590 AM, WBTP and WTMP.
Shortly after Hansen issued that comment, Florida Politics received a forwarded email from the Kriseman camp from Kristen Black, a media buyer at Hulsen Media Service in Austin, Texas, who wrote to John Rowley, who runs CounterPoint, a company focused on political and advocacy campaign.
“John, (w)e have written confirmation that the spot was pulled from WBTP and WTMP. I have an email from WRXB specifying the new spot they are running but I am waiting on him to send me an email with the verbiage that the other spot was pulled off the air. I will update you once I have it,” Black writes to Rowley.
Nevertheless, the Baker camp says that no ads were pulled, because the new ad had already been submitted.
With just 19 days left in the mayoral campaign, the race is neck and neck. The black vote is, perhaps, the key demographic that will decide the contest.
The Times quoted NAACP president and former District 6 city council candidate Maria Scruggs as acknowledging that Kriseman did make a 15-minute appearance at the event. He ultimately left that event to attend a South St. Petersburg Democratic club event featuring the City Council candidates.
The ad provided an opportunity for the Kriseman campaign to enjoy what they believe is a winning message in progressive St. Pete — linking Baker to President Donald Trump.
“Dishonesty seems to be a trait that Rick Baker and Donald Trump share, but we’re glad that local stations were willing to cease airing Baker’s false ad,” Smith added.
Now they’re airing the new one, which you can listen to below:
