Janelle Irwin Taylor
Newly elected Hillsborough County Commissioner Mariella Smith is endorsing Ed Turanchik for Mayor of Tampa.
“Ed Turanchik is a very rare combination of visionary, pragmatist and fiscal conservative,” Smith said during a campaign fundraiser for Turanchik at Jackson’s Bistro Thursday night.
Turanchik is running in a crowded field to replace Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn who is leaving office because of term limits.
One of the hottest topics this election cycle will likely be transportation solutions. Hillsborough County voters approved a 1 percent sales tax increase to fund both transportation and transit projects. Of the estimated $280 million raised annually, nearly $34 million would go to the city of Tampa.
Turanchik never came out in favor of the tax and was openly critical of it, arguing it was too vague and lacked vision. But now that it’s a done deal, Turanchik is promising to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars, a feature Smith touted.
“We are at a pivotal juncture here in Tampa. We have worsening traffic problems and a promising source of new income but that makes it critical that we have the right leadership who can actually figure out the right transportation solution and spend our tax dollars wisely,” Smith said.
During a recent conversation with Florida Politics, Turanchik said he didn’t have specific projects in mind yet for the transportation funding but said any transit-related solutions need to focus first on local connectivity to create a system people will actually use.
Smith called Turanchik “a visionary.”
“He’s not the pie in the sky visionary. He is someone who sees what is actually possible and figures out how to do it,” Smith said.
Turanchik served on the Hillsborough County Commission from 1990 to 1998.
He’s most well-known for past efforts supporting rail transit, earning him the nickname “Choo Choo Turanchik” and, most recently, for his work on implementing waterborne transit in the Tampa Bay region including the Cross Bay Ferry and the proposed MacDill Air Force Base/South Hillsborough ferry.
His latest work landed Turanchik a new self-imposed nickname: The Ferry Godfather.
“I am thrilled to have the strong support of Commissioner Smith,” Turanchik said during the Thursday fundraiser. “She scored a stunning victory over a well-known incumbent based on a shared agenda of better transit, affordable housing, sound growth management, and fiscal prudence. I’m confident that together we can bring home this agenda.”
Turanchik also has support from Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp.
He’s running against former Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor, Tampa City Council members Harry Cohen and Mike Suarez, philanthropist David Straz, small business consultant Topher Morrison and community activists LaVaughn King and Michael Anthony Hazard.
The Tampa mayoral race is March 5. If no single candidate receives more than half the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in a runoff election April 23.
