Former School Board member Mary Russell announces run for state House

SEMINOLE -- Mary Russell has announced she'll run for the state House District 54 seat now held by Republican Jim Frishe.

Russell, a Democrat, lives in Seminole and graduated from Seminole High School, St. Petersburg College and the University of South Florida. She is perhaps best known for her 2002-06 stint on the Pinellas County School Board, where she was known to be outspoken. She made headlines for her opposition to then-superintendent Clayton Wilcox. The resulting media coverage of their spats contributed to her decision to get out of politics -- at least temporarily.

"I thought my political career was over, at least until my boys graduated from high school," Russell said in her announcement for the House seat. "I think being a teenager is hard enough without your mother being on the front page of the newspaper. Their privacy is important to me, but more importantly, I want them to have a positive life experience. For a public person's child, that is sometimes hard to do."

Russell said her concerns about education funding, cuts to Medicare and public safety coaxed her back into the political arena even though her sons are still in school.

District 54 stretches up the western edge of Pinellas County and includes the beach communities from Clearwater to Tierra Verde.

Anne Lindberg, Times Staff Writer

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Comments

[Supporter of education!]

When Mary Russell had her “spats” with Clayton Wilcox, she was criticized by Bostock and others. Given the manner in which Wilcox departed from the Pinellas County Schools, it shows that Mary was right in the first place.

I look forward to Mary shaking things up in Tallahassee. She will be a terrific advocate for education!

[~]

I think Mary is hot!

[GOP]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-Mary in Tally-priceless. Thanks for the pre 4th of July laugh.

[K&K]

She'll do a hell of a lot better than Frishe the tool, or Nina (It's all about the kids... well, for 8-months at least) Hayden.

The questions is, is this part of the Thurman trade deal she duped Hayden into Oswalding for her.

[You've got to be kidding me!]

Looks like it's Jim Frishe's lucky day!

[Tom]

Is that the same Rep. Frishe who voted to give $6 million to buy an airplane hangar for a wealthy GOP donor?

Why did Frishe vote for that funding and where is the $1 million that Odom gave Bill McCollum and the other Republican candidates.

Russell get my vote.

[~]

Mary Russell is good people. She'll serve with honor.

[Seriously?]

Is this a joke????

[Bill]

Tell me it isn't true.

Did Jim Frishe vote for that stupid hangar? What was he thinking?

[payer]

Get a grip, seriously... Frishe is the joke in this story. None of them are sitting pretty. This is the most corrput and useless Legislature Floirda's ever had. And lockstepping with Sansome will be the most widely used angle in the state.

Go get 'em, Mary, they all suck and they all need to go!

[???]

Prayer. You need to pray for some intelligence!

[Who?]

~

Good people? Honor? Are we talking about the same person here?

[Dems are not the sharpest knives in the drawer...]

Ya know, that, "They voted for a 6 million dollar hangar" so they are all cprrupt line might sound good but the reality is it only proves you don't have a clue how budgeting works in Tallahassee...or you are just hacks who think repeating it makes it a fact...

Why do you think the paper keeps stressing that Sanson :SNUCK" it into the budget at the last minute....Wouldn'yt ya think that means he was doing it so no one WOULD realize what they were coting on...hhhmmmmm

And before you say..."well yeah, but they should have known it was in there and read the budget"..ok, let's see you read 1200 lines of amendments in a day and be able to tell what's good and what's not on the last day od session when you are hearing about 200 bills in 12 hours. Dems should know better here YOU created the way budgetes are done in Tally during the 122 years YOU controlled the legislature.

Dems should also know better since YOUR party just did that in DC last week with the Cap and trade bill when your leadership "SNUCK" in a 300 page amend ment that no one had access too.

Oh yeah...and ya wanna know why all the pubs have Odom money could it be beacause Sansom was running HOuse campaigns in 2006 and part of his job was funding candidates, can guarantee you most of those candidates had NO IDEA who Odom was, other than being one check among many....another lesson we learned from the dems over the decades.

[Dems are not the sharpest knives in the drawer...]

Ya know, that, "They voted for a 6 million dollar hangar" so they are all cprrupt line might sound good but the reality is it only proves you don't have a clue how budgeting works in Tallahassee...or you are just hacks who think repeating it makes it a fact...

Why do you think the paper keeps stressing that Sanson :SNUCK" it into the budget at the last minute....Wouldn'yt ya think that means he was doing it so no one WOULD realize what they were coting on...hhhmmmmm

And before you say..."well yeah, but they should have known it was in there and read the budget"..ok, let's see you read 1200 lines of amendments in a day and be able to tell what's good and what's not on the last day od session when you are hearing about 200 bills in 12 hours. Dems should know better here YOU created the way budgetes are done in Tally during the 122 years YOU controlled the legislature.

Dems should also know better since YOUR party just did that in DC last week with the Cap and trade bill when your leadership "SNUCK" in a 300 page amend ment that no one had access too.

Oh yeah...and ya wanna know why all the pubs have Odom money could it be beacause Sansom was running HOuse campaigns in 2006 and part of his job was funding candidates, can guarantee you most of those candidates had NO IDEA who Odom was, other than being one check among many....another lesson we learned from the dems over the decades.

[John]

it looks like Jim Frishe will win another term easily

and by the way Mary Russell, state legislators have no control of Medicare funding

that is a federal issue. She does not even know what responsibility a state legislator have, lol

[My vote's for Mary!]

Oh, my! The ruthless Right is already sharpening their knives to save Frishe's a-s-s.

Good going, Mary!

[Just thinking]

Frishe will already be half-way through his possible 8 years (in the House) in 2010. And if he follows the path of others who want to stay in public office, will starting running for the Senate after 2010. I'd tell Ms. Russell to stay home and concentrate on those children and run for the 2012 cycle.
I live in Tally and I see the nuts & bolts at the Capitol from January -April. There isn't any way that she can be there for her kids AND be up here in Tally over 50% of the time in jan/feb and full-time March, April and into may if necessary for a late ending like this year. She only gets one go around with those kids, but, the legislature will still be here. She's already acknowleged the negativity of publicity. And Frishe is a pro at campaigning. AND he is well-respected in Tallahassee and throughout the state. Most incumbents don't get voted out and Frishe doesn't have any dirty laundry (we know that because the Times loves to do pubs).
I'm not in his district so I am just offering an unbiased view.

[Just thinking]

I meant the St. Pete Times loves to dog repubs.

[Wrong!]

"The resulting media coverage of their spats contributed to her decision to get out of politics -- at least temporarily."

Uh...no... her loss to Nancy Bostock made that decision for her. So is this media bias or just ineptness?

[Just thinking]

To: Wrong! Couldn't it be both "ineptness" AND "media bias"?

SPT loves it that she is female and a democrat. We already know who will get their endorsement.

[Bill]

Mary is running against Ray Sansom's friend Jim Frishe - how hard can that be?

Frishe voted to build a $6 million airplane hangar for a major Republican donor.

Jim Frishe, Bill McCollum and the rest of the GOP thinks that keeping over $1,000,000 in contributions from Jay Odom is OK.

Why doesn't Frishe apologize for voting for the airplane hangar?

Why doesn't the Republicans give back the tainted donations?

[Still thinking]

Why doesn't the Times admit she didn't "decide to get out of politics" as they've reported? The voters "retired" her-- to put it mildly! Journalistic integrity, if such a thing exists, would demand a retraction.