Mitch Perry, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Mitch PerrySeptember 6, 2016

State House District 61 Rep. Ed Narain admits his narrow loss to Darryl Rouson for the Senate District 19 seat was painful, but he’s choosing to look on the bright side. “While I wouldn’t be completely honest if I wrote that losing this race so closely wasn’t very disappointing, my faith allows me to believe that […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 6, 2016

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After being tagged with with fellow Republican Donald Trump last week, David Jolly is hitting back at Charlie Crist when it comes to being associated with the Manhattan real estate developer and GOP presidential candidate. As Jolly was easily winning his Republican primary against Mark Bircher in Florida’s 13th Congressional District last Tuesday night, Crist issued a statement saying that “it saddens me to think that […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 6, 2016

My biggest fear of an approaching major storm living here in Tampa is losing electricity, with Florida still in full summer mode here in early September. That’s exactly what happened beginning last Friday in Tallahassee, and there were still some residential homes in North Florida as of yesterday still without power. Back here in Tampa, Hillary Clinton […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 4, 2016

Hillary Clinton will appear Tuesday afternoon at the student recreation center on the University of South Florida campus in Tampa, her campaign announced Sunday. The campaign had announced on Friday the Democratic presidential nominee would be making an appearance in Tampa Tuesday, but hadn’t announced the time or place. The event will start at 1:45 p.m., […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 2, 2016

With machine and manual recounts now finished in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, Darryl Rouson is the winner in the Democratic primary for Senate District 19. He defeated Ed Narain by a mere 66 votes (that’s what the Rouson campaign told us. The Florida Division of Elections website shows the difference to be 77 votes. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Rouson received 73 […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 2, 2016

They did it last night. After nearly four hours of discussion, the Tampa City Council voted 4-2 to support the biggest infusion of taxpayer dollars ever to attempt to improve the city’s stormwater infrastructure, which for decades has been a major problem in the city. Mike Suarez, Lisa Montelione, Harry Cohen and swing vote Guido Maniscalco opted to support Mayor Bob Buckhorn‘s proposal, […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 1, 2016

(UPDATE) After provisional ballots were counted by the separate Hillsborough and Pinellas County canvassing boards Thursday, Darryl Rouson’s lead over Ed Narain grew to 75 votes in the race for the Florida state Senate District 19. The contest appears indeed headed for a machine recount Friday, as the final margin of 75 votes out more than 37,000 cast is […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 1, 2016

Gwen Graham cut short her trip to Tampa Thursday, returning to Tallahassee to contend with Tropical Storm Hermine, which is expected to make landfall as a hurricane by early Friday in North Florida. The Tallahassee-based Democratic representative, already considered a leading candidate to run for governor in 2018, has been hobnobbing around the state this week. She […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 1, 2016

David Jolly easily handled Mark Bircher in the GOP primary contest in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. Now, the Indian Shores Republican is turning his full attention to defeating Charlie Crist, which won’t be easy. Jolly defeated Democrat Alex Sink in a special election in March 2014 by just 1.8 percentage points. That was when the district did not include more liberal enclaves of […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 1, 2016

I think I speak for a lot of Florida political observers in expressing my disappointment that, for whatever reason, Patrick Murphy never debated his Democratic Senate opponents, Pam Keith and Alan Grayson, during the just-concluded primary campaign. Murphy avoided debates organized by Florida Public Radio stations and Bay News 9/News 13 in Orlando well before […]

Mitch Perry

Ed Narain tries to find the silver lining in his narrow loss to Darryl Rouson in SD 19 contest

David Jolly calls out Charlie Crist for ‘hiding’ relationship with Donald Trump

Mitch Perry Report 9.6.16 — Enough nonsense about how ‘now’ the presidential election campaign season is beginning

Hillary Clinton to appear at USF in Tampa Tuesday

It’s (virtually) official: Darryl Rouson has won the SD 19 Dem primary over Ed Narain

Mitch Perry Report for 9.2.16 — Tampa City Council approves $251 million to improve stormwater system

Darryl Rouson now leads Ed Narain by 75 votes in SD 19 race going into Friday recount

Gwen Graham says she gets part of Donald Trump’s appeal

Charlie Crist CD 13 campaign continues psychological warfare offensive

Mitch Perry Report for 9.1.16 —The debate about the debates begins in Florida