Mitch Perry
(UPDATE: New information regarding the source of the push poll call below).
Supporters of Tampa City Council candidates Guido Maniscalco and Tommy Castellano say that they and other residents residing in City Council District 6 have been receiving phone calls in the past week purporting to be from an independent pollster, surveying them about all three candidates in this March’s primary race: Maniscalco, Castellano and transportation engineer Jackie Toledo, who leads all three candidates in fundraising in the contest. But according to the recipients of those calls, they sound like a push poll attempting to elevate Toledo and denigrate Maniscalco and Castellano.
“After the first couple of questions, I knew there was something not right here,” says South Tampa resident Nancy Alexander, who is supporting Maniscalco. She said that the caller made a statement that Maniscalco supports ending pension benefits for city workers (he doesn’t), and that he is a former Republican turned Democrat in order to be more electable (Maniscalco did run as a Republican in 2011). When it came to describing Toledo, Alexander said that the description of the only female in the race “made her sound like a saint.” Alexander also says there was a list of names who were said to be endorsing Toledo, including school board member April Griffin (Griffin has endorsed Maniscalco).
A registered independent voter in Riverside Heights also confirmed to Florida Politics the statements made in the call that she received last Thursday night. She is a Castellano supporter, and said as an employee of a nonprofit, she did not want her name used. “You could tell it favored the Toledo candidate,” she said.
The calls were first brought to the attention of this reporter last Friday morning by Bryan Farris, Maniscalco’s campaign manager, shortly before the Tiger Bay forum featuring all of the City Council candidates on the ballot. He says the comments made in the call run from “ridiculous to downright slanderous.”
Toledo denied the knowledge of such calls on Friday and repeated that today, saying, “I have nothing to do with them.” However, she said she would now begin to look into the issue.
“I will find out,” Toledo said.”We don’t need to go negative. I certainly don’t need to go negative. And I’m not a negative person. Tampa does not need negativity and drama in a campaign. People are sick of it. I’m sick of it. I hope whomever did it stops. I can only control what I know. And I don’t know anything about this.”
Farris says he’s willing to believe her, but believes the calls are coming from someone who supports her campaign. And he specifically calls out Toledo’s campaign manager, Anthony Pedicini. “This is exactly the kind of gutter politics that anyone who knows him and/or his work has come to expect from him,” Farris writes in an email.
Pedicini denied being responsible for any calls. “I think this is made-up nonsense,” and said the complaints were from two campaigns who have nothing else to talk about. “I will not get sucked into a broad debate with two candidates who have no way to communicate with people who are actually going to go out and vote.”
Last Sunday night Tommy Castellano received a similar call, which he says “shocked him.” The call refers to him as a “Radical Republican.”
On his campaign’s Facebook page, Castellano writes, “Someone is paying a telemarketing company to make mass phone calls, disguised as a “survey about the issues in the city of Tampa,” and what the call is really about is nothing but negative and untrue jabs at me, personally, and Mr. Guido Maniscalco. Again, I’m shocked. Now, not sure if this is a coincidence, but the call contains nothing but a positive pitch about the third candidate running in this race, after verbally destroying my and Guido’s character. Please do not buy into this.”
(UPDATE: An associate of Castellano says he then asked who was making the call and was told it was from a Gainesville-based firm called Datar & Associates. There is no such company based in Gainesville. However, there is a Data Targeting, Inc. in Gainesville. That is the firm run by GOP consultant Pat Bainter, who came under fire last year over his firm’s role in the state’s 2012 redistricting process that a judge determined unfairly favored Republicans. Florida Politics can now confirm that is where the call came from. Data Targeting has not responded to our request for comment.)
The campaign seems to be getting nastier. Toledo says Farris pushed her before the Tiger Bay debate began last Friday. “He is not being very kind towards me. He is being very aggressive towards people around me. Democrats who are supporting me. I don’t appreciate it.”
Farris says that he was handing out palm cards regarding Maniscalco before the debate on Friday, moving from table to table when he inadvertently brushed a part of his body into Toledo’s. “I would never, ever, ever touch a woman,” he said.
