In addition to the various local and legislative races on the ballot at the end of this month, voters will also be deciding on judges.
At Friday’s Tampa Tiger Bay meeting, the candidates for two races were present – Miriam Valkenburg in Circuit Court Group 10, and Robin Fuson and Carl Hinson in Group 3.
The 56-year-old Hinson has been endorsed by the Tampa Bay Times, La Gaceta and the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin. He’s a personal injury attorney who’s been at it since 1994.
“It’s my objective to serve this community, and be a fair and impartial judge,” Hinson succinctly told the audience on Friday.
His opponent is Robin Fuson, is a former prosecutor in the Hillsborough State Attorney’s office from 1993-2001, and has had his own private law practice since then. He said he’s approaching 5,000 times he’s appeared in a Hillsborough County courthouse.
Something not that well known about Fuson is in a previous life he was a professional player, playing with in the minor league systems of Cleveland, Boston, Seattle and Oakland. “So hopefully I have some kind of geographical closeness from wherever you are all from.”
“I’ve had the opportunity to be a role model for children…and I never let them down. And I’ll never let you down.”
A perusal of Fuson’s year career shows that it was mostly played in the minors, though he did make it to “The Show” to get in one game with the 1988 Oakland A’s, a powerhouse team that won more than 100 games that season before before being upset by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. He also pitched two years in the Mexican League.
