Janelle Irwin Taylor
Tampa City Council member Harry Cohen‘s mayoral campaign got a boost Wednesday when two left-leaning groups endorsed his candidacy.
But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Cohen.
A local news station uncovered ties to a controversial company that no doubt he will be asked about at one point before the March 5 election.
As is expected just a few weeks before an election, questions are starting to heat up surrounding city issues as voters finalize plans to support candidates. One of the day’s top happenings behind the scenes of Tampa’s mayoral campaigns involved an angry David Straz reacting to what he thought was an unfair story about his take on Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
Here’s what went down.
Tampa progressives and Muslims throw their weight behind Cohen
Emgage PAC, a national Muslim advocacy group, announced it was endorsing Cohen and bringing with it potential support from the 12,000 voters the group represents. The group said it chose Cohen based on his experience as a two-term City Council member and his ability to foster policies that support the group’s priorities on combating climate change, improving transportation and increasing affordable housing.
The Democratic Progressive Caucus of Tampa Bay also recommended Cohen Wednesday along with several other candidates in City Council races. That caucus also announced support for City Council candidates Walter Smith (District 1,) John Godwin (District 2,) John Dingfelder or Nicholas Glover (District 3,) Bill Carlson (District 4,) Orlando Gudes or Ralph Smith (District 5) and Luis Viera (District 7.)
Cohan and Mike Suarez received money from a red light camera vendor
Responding to Straz’s call to get rid of red light cameras in Tampa, reporter Nicole Grigg produced a little more than one minute spot pointing out one $500 contribution each to Suarez and Cohen in 2015 during which time both were serving on Tampa City Council. The contributions came from American Traffic Solutions, the vendor that runs Tampa’s red light camera program. The ABC spot did not point out that a group of lawyers challenged the city’s program that same year. In 2016, the red light camera program survived an attempt to squash it in 2016 when American Traffic Solutions’ contract was up for renewal. Suarez and Cohen both voted to continue the program.
—”Tampa mayoral hopefuls pledge zero tolerance for sexual harassment, discrimination” via Florida Politics
The question came via email from Tanja Vidovic, the Tampa firefighter who was fired in 2016 just one day after she filed a sexual harassment complaint. She asked candidates how they would clean up the department which had become “a den of sexual harassment.”
All seven mayoral candidates called any form of discrimination in any city department unacceptable and said such actions would not be tolerated.
“They all made good points. If all of those things would happen it would be wonderful,” Vidovic said.
But she’s still doubtful any of the candidates would do anything to actually solve the problems she continues to face in her role with the fire department — she was hired back after the federal court forced the city to reinstate her.
At issue is not an absence of policy, Vidovic said. The city of Tampa already has anti-discrimination rules in place. The problem, she said, was that the city’s human resources department refuses to follow them.
“It’s documented who harassed me. They admitted it in court,” Vidovic lamented. “So, why do these people still have a job?”
Straz blasts the Tampa Bay Times over “misleading” and “cheap” headline
The Times wrote in its headline Monday that Straz had called for an “investigation” of Vinik’s influence in Tampa. Whether or not that’s true boils down to semantics. Straz is fuming over the Times’ characterization over comments he made during a West Tampa Neighborhood Association forum Monday.
Moderator Mike Deeson asked what “controls” over Vinik’s dealings with the city — a question he asked in response to comments he received from residents who felt Vinik “gets everything he wants” from Mayor Bob Buckhorn‘s administration.
Straz said this:
“The Vinik question, ladies and gentleman, we need more transparency. And that is, what kind of money is going into Channelside? Who’s behind the St. Pete Times (Tampa Bay Times)? Who’s behind All for Transportation? Who’s behind a number of these things around town? Let’s get some transparency and find out what’s going on. If you look at some of the blogs you can get a feeling that not everything’s great. We need to investigate that much further.”
In a statement shared with Florida Politics, Straz claimed his words were mischaracterized. He said he meant “investigate” as a means to look further into something, but was referencing transparency throughout the city and in dealings with all developers, not just Vinik.
Straz further lamented that the Times did not include his clarification in a timely fashion. He claims the campaign provided a statement Monday evening, but that it was not included in the Times story until Tuesday afternoon.
If you missed it, the entire exchange is about 55 minutes into this video:
Straz releases affordable housing video with support from CDC of Tampa
The video shows Straz touring affordable housing projects in East Tampa with officials from the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa. The group applauds Straz for his plans to fast track permits and for his professional experience as a banker.
“David knows how to develop collaborations with financial institutions and the city by expanding opportunities and loans to homeowners,” a narrator says. “Just imagine. Who better than David Straz to tackle the challenges in the urban core.”
Straz concludes the video saying the city needs to work with private enterprise to build affordable housing.
“Topher Morrison’s plight of the underdog” via Florida Politics — “The media tends to cover the name establishment candidates and the money funded campaigns far more. While I’m mentioned in articles, I’m usually the last thing mentioned and rarely the topic of the article.”
Where Morrison lacks media attention, he tries to make up for in creativity. His small team of staff and volunteers have become a social media machine. They launched an effort to identify as many supporters as possible to get those voters to agree to like, share and comment on social media posts to boost Morrison’s lagging name recognition.
But being the underdog also comes with perks.
He’s not afraid to scare off big-moneyed donors and, at the same time, a little media attention would be nice. Morrison called out Ed Turanchik for being arrogant, saying Turanchik only thinks ideas are good if they’ve come from him. In another, he blasted Straz for not providing evidence for some of his statements.
“I’m calling his bluff,” Morrison said after Straz said he knew where there was “fluff” in the city’s budget, but wouldn’t say where.
Morrison’s mere presence in the race could be driving some of the overall conversations among front-runners. Much like Bernie Sanders pushed Hillary Clinton further to the left, Morrison’s talking points on touchy subjects like the city’s fire department could force it to be more broadly discussed.
And he could serve as a spoiler if the race for runner-up in the March 5 election is close, though it’s not clear to whom he’d be a spoiler — perhaps the linchpin that sends the race to a runoff.
Get Social
Proud to have been involved as a facilitator for the @tampayouthcorps this past year. @CityofTampa is very fortunate to have such wonderful young people learning about our City & important life applications from @TampaPD Chief Dugan & @GuidoManiscalco. pic.twitter.com/evgJv3B0KF
— Mike Suarez (@mikefortampa) February 13, 2019
Coming attractions:
Friday 11:30-1: p.m.: Tampa Tiger Bay Club, Chester A. Ferguson Law Center 1610 N. Tampa St. (Tickets required.)
February 19, 6-9:15 p.m.: New Tampa Council; St. Mark Evangelist Catholic Church at 9724 Cross Creek Blvd.
February 20, 5-8 p.m.: Tampa Bay Sierra Club; HCC Ybor congregation room, 2112 N. 15th St.
