Janelle Irwin Taylor
Tampa mayoral candidate Jane Castor is responding to the onslaught of attacks from her opponent, David Straz, in a 30-second television ad that began airing Thursday.
“Lies and political attacks never created a job, fixed a problem or improved a life,” Castor says in the video. “Yet that’s what David Straz is choosing to spend his money on and he’s got plenty of it.”
The ad comes after Straz has been repeatedly hurling accusations at the retired Tampa Police Chief over her law enforcement service.
Straz’s most recent attack claim Castor manipulated crime data while she was police chief to make it look like crime in the city had drastically reduced. But the campaign failed to provide any evidence for its claims other than testimony from a former officer and an analysis from a law enforcement expert the campaign paid $5,000 and who didn’t look at Tampa’s crime data.
“It’s unfortunate. The ads are untrue,” Castor said. “But it’s also revealing, Tampa. Because I’ve spent my entire life solving problems and bringing people together and I believe that’s the kind of leader we need.”
Straz has also accused Castor of eventual double-dipping. If elected, she will collect the $160,000 mayor’s salary in addition to her $113,000 annual pension she earned through her 31-year career with the Tampa Police Department. Straz said he would not accept the mayoral salary. Double-dipping typically refers to officials collecting government salaries after their forced retirement, which means they’re collecting both a pension and a salary related to the same job.
Immediately following the March 5 election, after Straz told reporters he would not promise to refrain from negative campaigning, Castor sent her opponent a letter promising to run a clean campaign focused on issues and asking him to do the same.
“Jane has run an optimistic campaign telling voters about her her plans for improving the lives of all Tampa residents, and she has urged David Straz to do the same. Unfortunately, he chose instead to spend money on false attacks. Tampa deserves better,” said Castor campaign manager Tim Wagner.
One comment
E.stein
April 4, 2019 at 5:55 pm
And when she was a cop, intelligence was used under her leadership as an enslaving device for serial stalking and female trafficking. That was easily covered up as mental complaints.
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