Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Peter SchorschNovember 8, 2017

Tuesday’s slate of elections in St. Petersburg certainly provided a list of winners and losers, and I’m not just talking about candidates. Here’s a list of the real winners and losers emerging from the city’s general elections. Please let me know if I missed anyone. The Biggest Winners Kevin King and Ben Kirby — Kriseman‘s top City […]

Mitch PerryNovember 7, 2017

Since launching his re-election bid this spring, Rick Kriseman‘s political strategy was a call to keep the city’s forward momentum by keeping him in charge, as opposed to going back to the past with Rick Baker, who served as St. Petersburg mayor during most of the aughts. As for Baker, the former mayor made the race a referendum on Kriseman, […]

Mitch PerryNovember 6, 2017

If Rick Kriseman ends up surviving Rick Baker‘s formidable challenge to be re-elected Tuesday for another four years as St. Petersburg mayor, it will be despite the intense hammering he received at the hands of the Tampa Bay Times editorial page. The Times recommended Baker in advance of both the Aug. 29 primary and the […]

Mitch PerryNovember 1, 2017

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A final report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission made public last week recommended 89 felonies and 103 first degree misdemeanors against the city of St. Petersburg based on a series of environmental violations relating to sewage dumps from 2015-2016. That bit of information leads a new attack ad by Seamless Florida, the […]

Phil AmmannOctober 27, 2017

Rick Baker is not quite finished with Kevin King. In a new radio ad released Friday morning, the former two-term mayor is once again blasting incumbent St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman for a “lack of judgment” in hiring King as his longtime chief of staff. Throughout the week, Baker’s campaign continually hammered his opponent on […]

Mitch PerryOctober 26, 2017

The news hasn’t been great lately for Rick Kriseman, but at least Joe Biden has his back. The former vice president has recorded a robocall in support of the Democratic incumbent and come out with a formal endorsement in the St. Petersburg mayoral contest, twelve days before voters go to the polls (though plenty already are […]

Mitch PerryOctober 26, 2017

For the third consecutive day, Rick Baker‘s campaign is working to keep Rick Kriseman chief of staff Kevin King in the news cycle. This time, they are seizing on a Tampa Bay Times editorial published Thursday calling on Kriseman to unseal court records regarding King’s arrest sixteen years ago. In 2001, as a 22-year-old Pinellas County substitute schoolteacher, […]

Peter SchorschOctober 25, 2017

You knew it would come to this. At some point in the titanic contest between Rick Kriseman and Rick Baker, the race would pivot from a wonky debate about budgets, sewers, and staffing to a bare-knuckled fight for not just who will occupy the mayor’s office, but the future of St. Petersburg. On Wednesday, Baker’s […]

Mitch PerryOctober 24, 2017

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Rick Baker is going there. With less than two weeks before Election Day in St. Petersburg’s mayoral race, the former mayor — behind in the public polls for the first time in the campaign — is airing a decidedly negative TV ad questioning the judgment of incumbent Rick Kriseman over his chief aide’s criminal past. “Sunshine” […]

Peter SchorschFebruary 27, 2017

I really don’t know Kevin King, the Chief of Staff to Mayor Rick Kriseman. I believe — and Kevin can correct me if I am wrong — the last time he and I spoke was in early 2006. It was after my spiral from politics, when I was waiting tables at a now-defunct joint on Fourth Street. If I remember correctly, Kevin […]

Tag: Kevin King

Winners and losers emerging from St. Petersburg’s municipal elections

Rick Baker faults Rick Kriseman for partisan politics in St. Pete elections

Rick Baker thinks media coverage of the race was fair. Rick Kriseman? Not so much

Latest Rick Baker attack ad pops Rick Kriseman over sewage report

Rick Baker not yet finished with Kevin King, ad blasts Rick Kriseman ‘tolerance’

‘Bidenator’ on the line: Joe Biden cuts robocall for Rick Kriseman

Rick Baker campaign again calls to release Kevin King court records

How Rick Baker’s Kevin King ad explains everything you need to know about St. Pete mayoral race

Rick Baker goes nuclear against Rick Kriseman, plays Kevin King card

I really don’t know Kevin King