Janelle Irwin Taylor
A poll worker for the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections took to Facebook Tuesday to rally opposition against St. Petersburg City Council member Lisa Wheeler-Bowman. She wrote the post Tuesday afternoon in the midst of St. Pete’s primary election day in which Wheeler-Bowman is facing opposition from three opponents.
“Not voting for Lisa Wheeler-[Bowman’s] re-election for City Council. I sought her help with Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority three years ago. Discovered she is on their board. Conflict of Interest. No wonder she did not hear me out,” Karen Phinney Kirkpatrick wrote. “There are plenty of more qualified candidates running for here seat.”
The other contenders include Uhuru candidate Eritha “Akile” Cainion, recent Florida State University graduate Sarah Elizabeth Moore and conservative Chico Cromartie. Neither Moore nor Cromartie have been actively campaigning.
Cromartie received some media attention earlier in the campaign for anti-LGBTQ statements made on social media that claimed residents in the south St. Pete District 7 were being neglected at the cost of “homosexuals” and the city’s pro-LGBT agenda.
It’s not clear what Kirkpatrick was referencing in her post about Wheeler-Bowman’s “conflict of interest.” City Council members routinely have positions with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) as representatives of the city. Members also serve from Pinellas County Commission and other cities within the county.
Wheeler-Bowman’s campaign condemned the remarks.
“When an Elections Deputy with the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections makes comments intended to tip the scale in an election, it damages voters’ confidence in the integrity of our elections process. It’s unacceptable and there is no place for this kind of rhetoric from those we trust to safeguard our elections,” said Wheeler-Bowman campaign manager Meagan Salisbury.
Kirkpatrick went on to claim people in the city don’t know who “Wheeler-Brown” is, using the elected official’s former name, which she used in her election four years ago before she married and changed it.
“It just goes to show if you do not assist, or at the very least LISTEN to your constituents, they will not only NOT vote for you, they will tell everyone under the sun how lame you were,” Kirkpatrick continued. The emphasis was hers.
She went on to also say City Council member Darden Rice needs to be replaced.
“But I don’t throw rocks at every dog that barks. Only the ones in my district,” she said.
Rice is serving her final term in office and is running for mayor in the 2021 election.
Kirkpatrick also linked to a Patch article about the St. Pete primary election that largely left out City Council member Ed Montanari by implying he was leaving office and that included District 1 candidates Robert Blackmon and John Hornbeck who are not on the primary ballot.
Asked about the post, a spokesperson for the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections confirmed that Kirkpatrick is a poll worker for the agency, but that she is not working during this election. Regular supervisor employees just take an oath to avoid such public political commentary, however poll workers are only bound by those rules when they’re actively working for the agency, but not when they’re sitting an election out.
“If a permanent employee would have posted something like that, that would be a completely different story,” said Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Communications Director Dustin Chase.
Still, the agency did ask Kirkpatrick to remove the post and, according to Chase, she agreed to take the post down. However, as of 5 p.m. the post was still visible on Kirkpatrick’s Facebook page.
