Jim Norman, who has been meeting with all types of folks in the community over the past few weeks and months in preparation for a return to local politics, makes it official today. He’s running for a seat on the Hillsborough County Commission.
Actually, he made it official yesterday by making pilgrimages to the editorial board of the Tampa Tribune and sitting down with Tampa Bay Times columnist Sue Carlton.
Norman thinks he’s going to win this race, outright. He thinks the Democrats in the race (Pat Kemp, Brian Willis and his friend and former colleague Tom Scott) are all nice folks that he has respect for, but he believes they don’t have the name recognition, nor the goodwill in many parts of the community, that the soon-to-be 61-year-old Norman has after being a part of the political scene for 20 years.
Can he do it? Will he get through a Republican primary?
Today he would. Tom Aviano is the lone Republican who has entered the District 6 race to date. When we spoke with Aviano last month, he admitted he knew nothing about Norman’s past. That doesn’t auger well if you’re a Republican who doesn’t want Norman back in office.
Tim Schock, who ran a respectable race against Al Higginbotham for the District 7 Republican County Commission seat last summer, appears poised to challenge Norman. Whether he can raise the resources to compete with Norman remains questionable.
How you feel about money in politics (and Norman) may affect your thoughts when you learn that he’s poised to collect $100,000 in campaign donations now that he’s officially in the race, as a statement about his viability.
In one of the interviews given yesterday, Norman confirms what he told this reporter last month on one of the hottest issues of the 2016 campaign: He opposes any sales tax to pay for transportation projects, and doesn’t believe any such tax will win approval. Instead he offers up the idea of getting the Legislature to work on a deal to have revenues from the Seminole tribe’s Hard Rock casinos get funneled back into counties like Hillsborough to help pay for such improvements.
Then again, we’re not 100 percent certain of what type of transportation tax will even be on the ballot next year in Hillsborough. This will be a big issue over the next few months.
The county’s got a lot of issues. If Norman can convince voters that he’s the best candidate for the future, he might have a chance. Or will he be perceived as a part of a past that voters don’t want to revisit? Stay tuned.
In other news..
On Thursday, Tampa City Council Chairman Frank Reddick will offer a proposal to give the Council more appointees to the just announced police Civilian Review Board.
Meanwhile, City Attorney Julia Mandell explains why the City Charter does not allow for the board to have subpoena power.
Scott Walker is in a ditch, so the Wisconsin governor decided yesterday to bash Jeb Bush for not saying that he’d reverse the possible U.S.-Iran nuclear deal on his first day in office. Not sure that makes any sense, but hey.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor agrees with some of the Florida GOP Senate candidates who bash Washington Republicans.
Sister Anne Dougherty will be Castor’s date for Pope Francis’ speech to Congress next month.
And here are our five takeaways from last weekend’s Republican Party of Florida summer quarterly meeting.
