The following is cross-posted from Noah Pransky’s award-winning Shadow of the Stadium blog.
When Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn suggested the Rays’ Stadium Saga may be due for some progress and that “Folks in St. Pete are going to want to know what the path forward is” before their late-summer mayoral election, could it really be a subtle endorsement for challenger Rick Kriseman?
It would be somewhat surprising to see Buckhorn, a Democrat, publicly endorse one of the three legit candidates in St. Pete this summer, because:
- He has a relationship to maintain with the current mayor, Bill Foster, a Republican;
- Polarizing Democrat Kathleen Ford supports an even tougher line with the Rays than Foster;
- And Kriseman, a Democrat, the only candidate to support giving the Rays some flexibility, appears to currently be running in third.
But if Buckhorn wanted to give St. Petersburg voters a reason to consider Kriseman, keeping the Rays’ Stadium Saga at the forefront may be a good idea.
My feeling is most St. Pete voters actually support Foster’s hard-line on enforcing the Rays’ lease, but if Kriseman is looking for issues to differentiate himself from the field, the Stadium Saga appears to be an opportunity.
