TAMPA — Early voting begins today in the sharply contested Tampa City Council runoff election between Jackie Toledo and Guido Maniscalco.
The Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections will open six early voting sites from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today through Sunday for what is likely to be a small number of voters. For the March 3 primary, early voting accounted for less than 9 percent of the votes cast in District 6, which covers West Tampa, plus parts of South Tampa and Seminole Heights.
By contrast, voters mailed in absentee ballots that made up nearly 60 percent of the primary vote in District 6. Absentee voting has been under way for a week in the runoff.
The election pits Toledo, 38, a first-time candidate from Beach Park, against Maniscalco, 30, the president of the MacFarlane Park Neighborhood Association.
Both emphasize the importance of improving transportation. Maniscalco says he would support a sales-tax referendum to expand transit, which he says is the biggest issue of the race. Toledo wants to upgrade older traffic signals and has said she could help Tampa build a light rail system but has not said she would support a tax referendum to do so.
Toledo, a civil engineer who runs a nonprofit performing arts camp for children, won the March 3 primary with 46 percent of the vote. Maniscalco, who sells vintage watches online and works in his mother's jewelry store, finished second with 29 percent.
Within two hours of the polls closing, the third-place finisher, West Tampa air-conditioning contractor Tommy Castellano, announced he supported Maniscalco's bid to succeed council chairman Charlie Miranda in District 6. Miranda left the seat because of term limits, but ran and won another four years in the citywide District 2 seat.
Before and since the primary, the race has been shaped by a political committee, Moving Tampa Forward, that has supported Toledo and attacked Maniscalco in a series of mailers.
Toledo has said her campaign is focused on being positive and has nothing to do with Moving Tampa Forward. Still, public records and social media suggest connections between the committee and her campaign consultant, Anthony Pedicini, who has worked for other candidates whose opponents have found themselves accused by similar third-party committees. Pedicini has denied any involvement with Moving Tampa Forward.
In its only campaign finance report to date, Moving Tampa Forward said it got $7,000 from a law firm led by former Fort Myers Mayor Wilbur C. Smith III, but it reported no expenditures. Maniscalco's campaign contends that $7,000 is far too little to pay for the thousands of glossy mailers that the committee has sent District 6 voters.
Late last week, Moving Tampa Forward's toughest mailer yet tried to tie Maniscalco to a series of state tax liens assessed against the family jewelry store from 2006 to 2010. Maniscalco said liens had nothing to do with him and that his grandmother owned the store at the time.
That prompted four of Tampa's seven City Council members to take the unusual step of issuing a joint statement that "unsavory" groups have no place in a nonpartisan city election.
"We are extremely concerned over the negativity that has permeated the District 6 runoff election, and are disturbed by shadowy, unknown entities becoming a factor in the race," council members Yvonne Yolie Capin, Harry Cohen, Frank Reddick and Mike Suarez wrote in a public letter.
"While none of us are strangers to the rough and tumble of the political process, we find the introduction of third-party attacks that cannot be traced to be a very alarming and destructive development," the four wrote. "In our view, candidates have an affirmative responsibility to stand behind attacks that are made on their opponents or to unambiguously denounce them."
Voters also should respond to Moving Tampa Forward's tactics, the council members said.
"One of the merits of our nonpartisan municipal elections is that they have traditionally avoided the rancor and deception that have so damaged the political process at the state and national level," they wrote. "To protect the integrity of the process, voters should send a clear message rejecting this type of anonymous negative campaigning and be leery of unsourced, unverified attacks."
None of the four council members who signed the letter have endorsed either candidate in the race, though two other council members have. Lisa Montelione supports Toledo, while Mary Mulhern is backing Maniscalco.
To vote early, go to the:
• C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library, 2607 E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
• Fred B. Karl County Center, 601 E Kennedy Blvd., 16th floor.
• Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library, 3910 S Manhattan Ave.
• North Tampa Branch Library, 8916 N Boulevard.
• Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center, 2514 N Falkenburg Road.
• West Tampa Branch Library, 2312 W Union St.
Only the 52,000 registered voters in District 6 are eligible to vote in the runoff. Neighborhoods in District 6 include the West Shore business district, plus Beach Park, Bon Air, Carver City/Lincoln Gardens, Culbreath Heights, Drew Park, Lowry Park, MacFarlane Park, North Hyde Park, Palma Ceia West, Plaza Terrace, Riverside Heights, South Seminole Heights and Wellswood.
Elections officials say voters who aren't sure if they're eligible to vote in the runoff should call the Supervisor of Elections Office at (813) 744-5900.
Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times