One of the most hotly local contested races on the ballot in Pinellas County this November is the open District 2 Countywide seat between outgoing state representative Ed Hooper and Largo Mayor Pat Gerard.
The two (or their surrogates) have been exchanging strong allegations against each other through the press ever since Hooper defeated Norm Roche in the Republican Primary late last month. But they opted to lay off each other for the most part while appearing at today's Suncoast Tiger Bay Club meeting at the St. Pete Yacht Club this afternoon.
Then again, they weren't the only ones on the dais; the four men running for the District 4 County Commission contest were also part of the forum, as was state Senate District 22 Democratic candidate Judithanne McLauchlan (her GOP opponent, Jeff Brandes, was not at the event).
The tricky and sometimes emotional issue of red-light cameras was posed to all of the candidates by St. Pete Polls proprietor Matt Florell, who pointedly asked Hooper that, since he had taken thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from red-light camera companies and sponsored legislation in Tallahassee supporting those cameras, would he push his colleagues on the County Commission to support such cameras if elected?
"I believe in red-light cameras, and not as a revenue source," Hooper declared. "I believe in it for the safety, respectively." A former firefighter, Hooper said he had experience pulling drivers out of cars who had been hit in T-bone-type car collisions, but never had to do so for those in rear-end collisions. But he said that he respected Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri's stance against such cameras, and said if the majority of commissioners opposed such cameras, he wouldn't push for their use.
SD 22 candidate Judithanne McClauchlan used the question to rail against corporate contributions, calling the "pay for play" style of politics in Tallahassee "vile and corrupt." She then segued into reiterating her previous call for Senator Brandes to return his campaign contributions from Duke Energy.
Playing off of her fellow Democrat's message against campaign contributions, Gerard added consulting fees "and how they might influence votes for actions to be taken in office," a reference to her criticism of Hooper for money he was paid by his company The Consus Group, specifically returning $10,000 for consulting for the Clearwater Aquarium while he sponsored legislation on behalf of the Aquarium.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Eggers, the strong favorite to win in the north county District 4 seat, said that his city doesn't employ such cameras and he wouldn't push them while on the Commission. Democrat Mark Weinkrantz said that his East Lake community would like such cameras but hasn't been successful in procuring any. He said they modified behavior. Independent candidate Carl Folkman said he would never completely rule out the idea. The other indie in the race, Marcus Harrison, was mushy on the issue, saying he didn't support them but wouldn't rule them out, either.
Eggers and the three Democrats on the panel all support the Greenlight Pinellas transit tax swap plan, while Hooper and the two independent candidates oppose it. That led to the Greenlight Pinellas critics getting a lot more face time during the forum, as both Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch, St. Petersburg City Councilmen Wengay Newton and CASA executive director Linda Osmundson, all Greenlight supporters, asked questions only to those who oppose the measure to come up with alternatives other than saying "no."
Hooper reiterated his take on the issue, that he would prefer that at least half a cent and perhaps the whole cent of the next round of funding for the Penny for Pinellas tax that comes up in two years go strictly to upgrading Pinellas' transportation system. That tax has been in effect since 1990, and has been used to fund roads, bridges, parks, drainage and other capital improvement projects.
Gerard responded that those funds currently can only now be used for capital expenses, and she'd prefer to keep it that way. "Some of those capital expenses are police, fire, and fire engines and stormwater projects."
An audience member asked the candidates who believe in tax cuts explain why.
"I believe in tax cuts where we can," said Marcus Harrison when asked what programs he would to support reducing taxes."What people don't realize is that as our property values go up, if we continue to allow that and utilizing that revenue that is a tax increase." He said it would be fiscally responsible to hold the line on spending right now.
Hooper was delighted to boast about the legislation he's sponsoring lowering taxes while in the Legislature over the past eight years. Taking a line out of Rick Scott's campaign mantra, he discussed the $500 million tax cut Floridians were receiving this year, $401 million of that coming from a rollback of 2009 vehicle-registration rate hikes.
"Taxes are not good. When you raise taxes, you hurt the entire economy," he said.
When asked about Medicaid expansion in Florida, McLauchlan said the failure of the Legislature to approve that in 2013 "catapulted" her into declaring her candidacy this year, despite the fact that she said that she has a great job teaching political-science at USFSP and living on Madeira Beach with her family.
Referring to the compromise legislation proposed by Senator Joe Negron last year to try to get a form of Medicaid expansion passed, she noted how every member of the Senate voted to approve the measure except one, Jeff Brandes (the bill went nowhere in the House).
McLauchlan then mocked Brandes'"taking Tallahassee to the woodshed" ads that he originally ran in 2010 against Democrat Bill Heller and has reprised for his Senate race.
"Those who I think have been taken to the woodshed quite frankly are kids who want to go to quality public schools," she said. "Those who are taken to the woodshed are those without access to health insurance, because our Legislature refused to take the Medicaid expansion; We're taken to the woodshed every month when we pay our utility bills, when we're paying the nuclear cost recovery fee for a power plant that will never be built."
Brandes will get his opportunity to respond on Friday, when he is scheduled to appear at Tiger Bay Forum in Tampa — as the Senate District 22 seat encompasses mostly parts of Pinellas County, but also includes South Tampa.