Fabian Calvo, the Clearwater radio host and multifamily housing developer running for term-limited Rep. Tom Anderson's seat, wants indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom to resign. Calvo has created a petition and challenged other candidates to sign it.

“Ray Sansom has violated the trust of the people and has cast a cloud over the Republican Party in the state of Florida,” Calvo said in a statement Monday.

Calvo, a newcomer, faces two established Republicans in Pasco County: Richard Corcoran, an attorney and former aide to Marco Rubio, and Pasco County School Board member Kathryn Starkey. The District 45 Republican race in 2010 is for a Pinellas-Pasco seat, though the district's voters shade toward Pasco. Sansom would leave office after 2010 because of term limits, before the winner arrives.

The call for Sansom to resign didn't exactly reverberate.

"I think it’s quite premature for him to do something like that. It almost sounds like he wants to get his name out and this is how he’s doing it – grandstanding," said Bill Bunting, Pasco's state committeeman. (Calvo recently bought a $650 sponsorship table at a county fundraiser run by Bunting).

"We have enough to deal with in Pinellas County without having to deal with those issues," said Tony DiMatteo, Pinellas state committeeman and a Rubio supporter.

The petition carries a disclaimer: "Political advertisement paid for and approved by Fabian Calvo, Republican, for State House, District 45."

David DeCamp, Times Staff Writer

*