Lina Teixeira won’t support Kathleen Beckman for Clearwater Mayor

Clearwater City Council member Lina Teixeira has, until now, tried to stay neutral in the city’s mayoral race.

But with less than a month until Election Day on March 19, Teixeira is breaking her silence.

Teixeira tells Florida Politics she cannot support City Council member Kathleen Beckman in her bid for Mayor or City Council member Mark Bunker in his re-election, arguing her colleagues have shown a “pattern of disparaging the other people they wish to work with.”

“I’m very concerned about our ability to be unified in governing the city,” Teixeira said. “This is not about me endorsing people, it’s about me saying these two incumbents cannot garner consensus and build partnership and cohesiveness,” she added.

Teixeira offered some examples, particularly related to Beckman. She said Beckman repeatedly says at candidate forums that she was the hardest working person on the City Council.

“That is very difficult for my husband and I to hear because I work very hard as well,” she said, noting that just because she tends to work odd hours — she’s a self-proclaimed night owl — it doesn’t mean she works any less hard.

She added that she agrees that Beckman works hard, but she disagrees with the implication that Beckman is the only one who does.

“I would never dismiss her efforts; I find it offensive that she dismisses mine,” Teixeira said.

Teixeira said Beckman “gets personal” when there are matters on the dais for which the two disagree.

“Let’s say there’s a subject that we’re discussing and I agree with the issue, however I have a different view of the solution. Then she will tend to say, ‘that’s disingenuous, that’s disrespectful, are those your values?’” Teixeira said. “There are ways to address disagreement without disparaging or being divisive.”

Teixeira is supporting Beckman’s opponent, Bruce Rector. She said she believes he is better equipped to bring unity to the City Council, leadership she said will help officials better govern the city.

“I believe that a leader must unite and elevate their team and I believe that Bruce will do that,” she said. “Based on the pattern of rhetoric in the forums, I don’t think Kathleen has that leadership skill.”

Bunker had not officially endorsed a candidate, but recently commented on a column penned by Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch. The column argued Beckman should stop pointing fingers over a well-documented campaign flub and instead take responsibility. Bunker came to her defense.

“No one has worked harder than Kathleen or earned as much respect from citizens as she has,” he wrote, adding a list of accomplishments.

He also commented that campaign finance records “should show that I made a donation to her campaign,” adding that the Beckman campaign returned the donation “because they said they didn’t want to accept endorsements from other council members.”

Teixeira said that’s not true; she said Beckman solicited her endorsement personally.

Beckman is facing an ethics complaint from former Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard alleging Beckman campaigned for office using city resources — she sent letters on city letterhead to a list of recipients Hibbard claims was targeted.

Beckman has pushed back against the complaint, arguing it is a political move meant to discredit her campaign. Hibbard has endorsed Beckman’s opponent, Rector.