I live, work and vote in Tampa (town motto: Tell Us A Politician Is In Trouble, We'll Name A Dozen Possible Candidates!) From this vantage point, you can look across the pond to St. Petersburg and think:

Seriously, you call that a nasty political campaign? You think that's a real nut job you've got running for office? You call that a scandal? A judge accused of bank fraud involving a house he bought with a stripper, a county commissioner whose defense in a sexual harassment case is essentially that he was merely pimping out his employee — now those are scandals.

But the race to replace that really tall guy as St. Petersburg mayor caught my eye. Because, if I understand this correctly, voters will choose between:

1. A lawyer and former City Council member of various accomplishments who, by the way, believes man and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time; and:

2. A lawyer and former City Council member of various accomplishments whose previous incarnation in office has been described by her critics with words like divisive, loose cannon and, oh, yeah, the B-word.

So naturally, I wanted to meet her for lunch.

Read story here.

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