Peter Schorsch
On Saturday morning, state Rep. Kathleen Peters announced she was withdrawing her bid to join the Public Service Commission.
To be honest, it was a surprise that she had even applied to the PSC.
Peters really hasn’t had much nice to say about Tallahassee politics and is basing her campaign for the Pinellas County Commission on a desire to give local governments more of a say in the state Capitol. But, I imagine she saw service on the PSC as a way to strike back at some of the special interests, as the investor-owned utility companies, she has bumped up against during her time in the Legislature.
Peters’ critics and campaign rivals would contend that you’re either applying to serve on the PSC or running for County Commission, but you shouldn’t do both.
Either you want to serve in Tallahassee or Clearwater, so pick one.
Peters herself may have realized the awkwardness of this situation, so she decided to take herself out of the running for a spot on PSC.
Had she just quietly withdrawn, it’s doubtful anyone would have noticed.
But that’s not Peters, a veteran politician who enjoys taking on tough issues.
In a statement, Peters said she was withdrawing her application, because “I have learned that the City of St. Petersburg is seeking permission to pump sewage into the aquifer beneath Pinellas from which we draw our water.”
“Many of my constituents are very upset by this possibility and have urged me to fight this proposal,” Peters said in the statement. “I believe I can best do that by continuing on the course I had previously set forth as a candidate for the Pinellas County Commission.”
There’s no doubt that Peters would be in a better position to fight the City of St. Pete’s sewage proposal as a County Commissioner than as a member of the PSC, but St. Pete’s sewage system issues aren’t new. Yes, injecting partly-treated sewage or “reject water” deep underground is just now being raised as part of a master plan to guide the revamping of the sewage system, but is this so important of an issue that it was able to change Peters’ mind?
I guess so, but there are dozens of these local issues which Peters is interested in and would be better able to fight as a County Commissioner than from the vantage point of the PSC.
Partially treated sewage was the deal-breaker for Peters?
Or maybe she understood what the optics were of a candidate running against the politics of Tallahassee only to still want to serve there.
Peters is too good of a public servant to make these kinds of mistakes.
As the race for the County Commission heats up, she’ll need to stop making these kinds of unforced errors.
