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#15 on list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians — Gus Bilirakis

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Gus Bilirakis has near a lifetime’s worth of political experience in the Tampa Bay area. A congressman, the longtime politician also served in Florida’s House of Representatives and worked tirelessly on his father’s congressional campaigns before taking the torch himself in 2007. The Bilirakis name, particularly in Tarpon Springs and in North Pinellas, is synonymous with power. Bilirakis is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including the Health Subcommittee; Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee; and Communications and Technology Subcommittee.…

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#16 on list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians — Janet Cruz

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How valued is the Tampa state House Representative to the Florida Democratic Party? Janet Cruz said in January she was getting calls from Democrats in Tallahassee and Washington that she run for the newly created Senate District 22 seat that evolved from a newly drawn Senate map. “It would cost $4 million,” Cruz told POLITICO’s Matt Dixon. “I could win it this year, but it’s a two-year seat I would have to raise $4 million for again and probably not hold.” Cruz…

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#17 on list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians — Ken Welch

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Not only is Ken Welch a former chairman of the Pinellas County Commission and of the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, he’s also invincible. Or so it seems anyway. Welch has been on the Pinellas County Commission for more than 15 years. That’s nearly double what his counterparts in Hillsborough are allowed to serve, because Pinellas County does not have term limits. Until this year that last sentence came with an abundance of nuance. In mid-February, the county’s charter review board rejected…

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#18 on list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians — Arthenia Joyner

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After 16 years in the Legislature, Tampa-based trailblazer Arthenia Joyner is term-limited out of power this year. She’ll end her legislative career in Tallahassee as Senate Minority Leader, the first African-American woman ever to ascend to that position. It’s not the first time she’s broken barriers. Joyner was the first black woman to practice law in Hillsborough County, and was one of the few women to head the National Bar Association. Although many of her pet projects in the Legislature…

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#19 on list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians — Dennis Ross

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Dennis Ross, 56-year-old Lakeland native, is in his third term representing Congressional District 15 in the Polk County region. The district skews Republican, though a little less so after redistricting took away the cities of Bartow and Mulberry in Polk County, and Temple Terrace and Lutz in Hillsborough County. Ross is senior deputy majority whip in GOP House leadership, but announced he would run for House Majority whip after John Boehner announced stunned official Washington last fall in announcing his…

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#20 on list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians — Sandy Murman

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At times, 2015 proved a bumpy road for Sandy Murman, the Davis Islands-based lawmaker. Perhaps the biggest blow came when her Hillsborough Board of County Commission colleagues ousted her from her chairwoman position. That followed a less-than-warm reception to her alternative plan to raise money for transportation projects in the county, a plan that allowed her to declare her opposition to the Go Hillsborough sales tax plan that might go on the ballot this fall. Murman was also caught in…

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#21 on list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians — David Gee

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Although Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee was eligible to collect his retirement benefits this past last May had he stepped down, Gee is running for re-election again this fall. He looks likely to win as he faces token opposition from the Democratic Party. Otherwise, he could have stepped back and received a Deferred Retirement Options Program check of $955,694 and a yearly retirement of a minimum of $173,820 the rest of his life. The 56-year-old Gee is known as a…

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