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William March: Capin and Cruz appear destined for District 1 race

 
Times Correspondent William March
Times Correspondent William March
Published June 27, 2017

Tampa City Council member Yolie Capin and state Rep. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, appear headed for a primary in the District 1 County Commission race, which has Democrats worried they'll once again have strong candidates competing against each other in primaries, to the detriment of their chances against Republicans.

Factionalism among local Democrats appears to be part of the reason for the contest.

Four commission seats will be on the 2018 ballot, which could give Democrats hope of regaining a majority. But the District 1 seat, which represents much of the city of Tampa, is the only "open" seat with no sitting commissioner running, making it an unusually attractive plum.

Republican Commissioner Sandy Murman announced in April she'll resign the District 1 seat with two years left in her term and run instead for a countywide seat.

Capin filed for the seat May 31.

Meanwhile, Cruz says she also intends to run for the seat, and is waiting only to wind down this year's state House duties, where she's minority leader.

Both Capin, who's term-limited in 2019 in her citywide council seat, and Cruz, term-limited next year, have talked for months about future political plans, including a possible county commission race. Both have bases of support in District 1.

Cruz narrowed her focus to District 1 after Murman said she would resign.

Capin backers include some local Democrats unhappy with Mayor Bob Buckhorn, a longtime Cruz ally. They say Cruz was unclear about her intentions, and that Cruz should run for a different seat now that Capin has filed.

Cruz backers say Capin jumped into the race and began recruiting supporters when it became known that Cruz was considering it.

"I have no comment" on a possible primary, Capin said. "I'm the only candidate on the Democratic side right now. I can't talk about something that hasn't happened."

Said Cruz, "I never want to see two very solid Democrats in a primary against each other," but, "The District 1 seat's been in my purview for a while."

Democratic fundraiser and Cruz backer Justin Day lamented, "We're going to spend a lot of money in a primary that could be better spent elsewhere. Two good Democrats beating each other up is not what we need."

On the GOP side, Aakash Patel has filed for the seat, and Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce board Chairman Mike Griffin may be interested in it.

In a 2016 primary that dismayed local Dems, former county Commissioner Kevin Beckner and veteran Clerk of Court Pat Frank, two of the county's most popular Democrats, fought a bitter battle in part because of what each side said was a misunderstanding or deception by the other about their political intentions. Frank was re-elected.

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•••

Tampa Democrats who gathered for a fundraiser for St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman this week said they favor him because they believe he'll be better for cross-bay cooperation than his re-election opponent, former Mayor Rick Baker.

They said it's not just for party reasons, but with Democrat Kriseman and Republican Baker both having histories of partisan involvement, the race has become a partisan cause on both sides of the bay.

Tampa Democrats have at least one more fundraiser planned for Kriseman, and big-name Tampa GOP donors will gather June 30 to raise cash for Baker.

Introducing Kriseman at the event, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said re-electing him would help end "the regionalism and parochialism that has plagued this region for decades."

Kriseman said the race will decide, "whether we're going to continue to move forward or backward … to a time when the city of Tampa and the city of St. Petersburg fought against each other."

In an interview, Buckhorn declined to criticize Baker, including on the issue of regionalism — "He's been a good mayor and he should be proud of his time there." But he said that since Baker's tenure, "The region has ceased to be parochial in its approach — we don't compete with each other anymore, bad-mouth each other anymore."

Baker is known for his devotion to St. Pete – he once called for the Tampa Bay Rays to change their name to the St. Petersburg Rays – but his backers say that doesn't mean he'd stand in the way of regional cooperation.

"I don't think either of them would fail to cooperate across the bay," said former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, a host of the event for Baker. "Everybody's beginning to see how necessary that is."

•••

State Rep. Jamie Grant, R-Tampa, is being bashed by the U.S. Term Limits organization, which claims he's "cheating" on term limits – but the charge goes back to a wrinkle in Florida election law that fouled up Grant's 2014 re-election.

That re-election was invalidated because of litigation over a write-in candidate who filed for his District 64 seat, but didn't live in the district and never campaigned. Grant missed most of the 2015 legislative session while the litigation was decided, but won re-election again in a special election in April, 2015.

As a result, he missed most of the 2015 legislative session – but because he was technically out of office for six months, his term limits clock was re-started. First elected in 2010, Grant could end up serving as much as 14 years in the state House, despite the limit of four two-year terms.

Grant had nothing to do with the lawsuit – it was filed by the husband of another candidate – but Phil Blumel, president of U.S. Term Limits, blamed him for the situation in a news release, saying, "Rep. Grant's scheme to evade term limits is sleazy and outrageous."

Grant's unusual House tenure, however, has reaped him one big advantage. The eight-year limit gives most House members little time to campaign for leadership posts such as House speaker. Grant, with more time to campaign and build alliances among colleagues, is now a top contender for the speakership in 2022.

He said the charge that he engineered the events to extend his term limit was "absolute insanity."

Contact William March at wemarch@gmail.com