Augie Ribeiro, the wealthy trial attorney who made a late run for state Senate District 19 in 2016, is now considering a run for the District 6 seat on St. Petersburg’s City Council.
“I am considering running for this seat,” Ribeiro wrote in an email to FloridaPolitics.com Monday afternoon.
“I will be deciding in the near future if it is the right time and position to serve the public,” he says, adding that “District 6 encompasses many of the same constituents as in the state Senate district I campaigned for last year.”
The District 6 race already has seven candidates in the mix.
The 52-year-old Ribeiro has only lived in St. Petersburg for four years, and though he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in his bid to win the SD 19 seat last summer, finished fourth in that race behind the three much better-known candidates, Darryl Rouson, Ed Narain and Betty Reed. An uphill battle from the start, Ribeiro didn’t help his cause by entering the race just days before the filing deadline last June in a race that took place in late August.
News of Ribeiro’s interest in the race was first reported by the Tampa Bay Times Friday.
If he does enter the race, Ribeiro could possibly set records for spending in a Council race. He spent more than $672,000 in just two months in his unsuccessful bid for the SD 19 seat last year.
