Five months before he runs for what is expected to be a relatively stress-free re-election bid, Bob Buckhorn has a challenger in acupuncturist and activist Becky Rubright.Based on her initial comments to the dailies, the Seminole Heights resident is getting into the race in part because it's healthful in a democracy to hold our elected officials accountable, and nobody else so far has come forward to challenge the Tampa mayor, who is unlikely to have another elected official take him on.
We look forward to speaking to Ms. Rubright, and also will see if any other candidates come out in the next few months. Not only is Buckhorn extremely popular with a lot of successes under his belt, but folks, it's just hard to beat an incumbent.
If you disagree, think about George W. Bush in 2004, Barack Obama in 2012, or Rick Scott this year. All those officials weren't (or in Scott's case, aren't) exactly overwhelmingly popular when they faced the voters for a second time, but all the powers inherent in their office made it so very difficult to challenge an opponent, unless that incumbent has seen his city or state or country simply fall apart, or there's been corruption.
Which makes it all the more incredible when you think about what happened approximately 11 months ago, when Rick Kriseman whipped Bill Foster by 12 percentage points in the St. Pete mayoral contest on November 5.
A year ago at this time, just as the mayoral election was getting particularly intense, this reporter had to contend with a family situation and took off nearly two months on personal leave — so I missed the give and take on the campaign trail to understand how what had been an extremely close race broke for the challenger so dramatically.
Undoubtedly the problems with the Pier and the Rays stadium hurt Foster, but in retrospect, he seems more like the accidental mayor. Construction was booming downtown, and the city had never become more attractive. But the South side of St. Pete had soured on Foster by mid 2011, and he could never get those voters back.
Having said all of that, Bob Buckhorn does not appear to be remotely in the situation that Foster found himself in, some five months before his re-election bid.
In other news..
By all indications, 2014 is going to be somewhat of a Republican year, though nobody is calling it a "wave election." But Democratic groups say their secret weapons are single women, which is why fresh attacks on Rick Scott's record on abortion could ultimately aid Charlie Crist in November.
Several Supervisors of Elections yesterday issued alerts to the media that, contrary to a mailer sent out by the Rick Scott campaign folks, you shouldn't have received your absentee ballot yet.
The ongoing saga between Uber and Lyft and regulators is international in scope. While Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission continues to cite such drivers in Tampa, the district attorneys in California's two biggest metropolises say the ride-sharing companies' background checks policies are completely bogus.