Mayoral candidate Jamie Bennett will skip this weekend’s Kennedy King Unity Dinner, evidently because he (actually, his wife) does not want to attend an event of an organization (The Pinellas Democratic Party?) whose members have filed complaints against his campaign (dentally challenged Dem Jim Donnelon filed complaints against Bennett and myself, all of which were dismissed).
The first shots in the sign war have been fired and the early victories have gone to Bill Foster and Deveron Gibbons as both candidates have a dominant signage presence in north St. Petersburg. Holding her own is Kathleen Ford with decent visibility. Lagging behind is Scott Wagman’s campaign, which had zero large signs up on either 4th or 9th Street. Even Jamie Bennett has a sign up on 4th Street! I did do a comprehensive review of 4th, 9th…
At the beginning of the race to be St. Petersburg’s next Mayor, there was a lot of smoke about how the candidates were utilizing the web to advance their message. Well, turns out there’s a lot of smoke, but not a lot of fire. Many of the candidates — Jamie Bennett, Deveron Gibbons, Bill Foster — haven’t updated their sites in weeks. Only one candidate, Scott Wagman, is really utilizing the power of online messaging to bolster his campaign. I…
Gentlemen, start your engines…or do whatever sports metaphor you want to do because today is the first day after Memorial Day and the race to be St. Petersburg’s next Mayor is now for real. Take a look at Scott Wagman’s website and you’ll notice he’s installed a timer counting down until voting begins. For once, Scott is right (well he may right on that Harmon thing, too), the election is upon us. So I’ve updated my graphic Mayoral Madness to…
Before you read the following article, remember there was a complete (self-imposed) firewall between me and Jamie Bennett’s campaign finances. So everything you are about to read is just another indication of Bennett’s incompetence. Also, I am on record as early as March 16 as recommending the campaign institute more advanced controls of his campaign finance record-keeping, as indicated by this email I sent to the campaign treasurer: Bill: Here is where you want to go to order Campaign Tool…
I guess POWW’s decision to hire me wasn’t so bad after all…from the SHROCK: There will not be a ballpark on the downtown waterfront. The Tampa Bay Rays say they have altogether abandoned thoughts of an open-air stadium at the site of Al Lang Field. “It’s pretty clear people did not want a ballpark down there,” Rays senior vice president Michael Kalt said Friday. “From what we’re seeing, we’re probably in that camp, too. “For us, Al Lang’s not an…
At the heart of Jamie Bennett’s defense in Ticketgate is there was no political strategy behind the distribution of his tickets to the city’s suite at Tropicana Field: “Schorsch, in turn, claimed the tickets were part of a campaign strategy. The plan was to use the tickets to curry favor with neighborhood leaders and canvass their neighborhoods just before the association’s monthly meeting in hopes of generating a positive buzz, Schorsch said. Bennett said there was no such “ticket strategy.”…
