As we reported yesterday, Kevin Beckner is running for Clerk of the Circuit Courts in Hillsborough County in 2016.
Generally that would be somewhat interesting news for local political junkies and fans of the Hillsborough County commissioner, who is going to be termed out of office in a year and a half and needs to find another position to run for if he wants to continue to stay in public service.
But the big story here is that he’s running against Democratic incumbent Pat Frank, who is making it quite clear that, contrary to what Beckner told reporters on Friday, she never reached out to him first to say that she would be stepping down in 2016 and suggest that he consider running for the office.
“I never told him that,” Frank said with a clear and steady voice on Saturday. “I told him (that) I knew that he had talked to people, and the word had gotten back to me that he was interested in the office.”
“So I thought I’d talk to him, and find out if in fact he was planning on running, ” Frank continued. “I never said I wasn’t going to run. I said I hadn’t made up my mind yet. And I never said that I would endorse him or anything of that sort. In fact, he did say to me, ‘If I do run, could you support me?’ And I said, I’ve gotta be honest with you, the person who would stand first in line with me would be Harry Cohen.”
That would be Tampa City Councilman Harry Cohen, who previously served as chief deputy to Frank in the Clerk’s office, and since being elected in 2011 has continued to work part-time in the office on a project to update information technology.
When reached for comment on Saturday, Beckner said that’s not how he remembers it.
“I know what transpired last year — she approached me and said that she was going to be retiring and asked me of my interest,” he said. “And our conversations started from there.”
Beckner says one thing that hasn’t been reported correctly is the story that he asked for Frank’s endorsement.
“When we got into a conversation, she said, ‘please talk to Harry Cohen, because understand that if Harry decided to run, my allegiance would be to him.’ But I never asked for her support. I never asked for her endorsement.”
Both candidates agree that it’s democracy in action if the two ultimately face each other next year, though Frank says she doesn’t like it when Dems challenge each other.
“It’s a mistake in my mind,” she says. “I remember when Pat Kemp was running against Janet Cruz and I was thinking, ‘what’s going on?’”
That would be House District 58 special election in January of 2010, that bitterly divided the Hillsborough Democratic Party. That’s when then-incumbent Mike Scionti announced he was stepping down to work for the Obama administration.
Seizing in part on the fact that Cruz did not live in the district at the time, Kemp opted to challenge Cruz. Cruz ended up winning a close contest, and has represented the district ever since.
The Democrat Primary for the clerks office isn’t until August of 2016, nearly a year and a half away. Pat Frank says that she doesn’t like races that start this early on.
“I think the public tires very quickly, and I think they deserve to tire, because we’ve just gone through races (last fall), and I think they deserve a rest, and I don’t like beating the drums for money this early out; it’s just very repulsive to me.”
Both Frank and Beckner said they are going to work hard at their current jobs until next year’s election.
