John Warren says St. Petersburg mayoral bid is not a publicity stunt
ST. PETERSBURG - Listen up, cynics.
John Warren wants you to know his late entry into the mayoral race is not a publicity stunt for his restaurant, Savannah's Cafe.
Yes, he is too broke to pay his election fees.
But he insisted this is not about getting more customers in the door.
Warren said he read some comments criticizing his motives on Bay Buzz and wanted to set the record straight. What's more, he asked the St. Petersburg Times not to call him a restaurateur because he worried that title gave critics the wrong impression.
His preferred title? Community investor.
Cristina Silva, Times staff writer
*
From the writers of the St. Petersburg Times, Bay Buzz offers the latest news on Tampa Bay politics. This is a public forum sponsored and maintained by the St. Petersburg Times. When you post comments here, what you say becomes public and could appear in the newspaper. You are not engaging in private communication with candidates or Times staffers.
Errrrrr...PUBLICITY STUNT...ALL OF IT. I say we ALL BOYCOTT his restaurant (seeing as he now even denies that is his business).
Posted by: .. | July 02, 2009 at 10:54 AM
I hope NONE of the "hardship" jokers put a dime into their own campaigns.
If you're too broke to pay a fee, then you can't be putting in wads of your own cash into your campaign.
Posted by: listening to this mayoral campaign is a hardship | July 02, 2009 at 11:33 AM
You know, not paying because it is a hardship is baloney. Yes, the fee sucks, but you can also not pay the fee by COLLECTING SIGNED PETITIONS, which Bennett, Gibbons and Wagman did.
Do you think I liked going to 22nd Street Seafood Festival (not a lot of seafood, not a lot of festival) to collect signatures for Bennett?
You think Toni Molinaro enjoyed standing outside of the Saturday Morning Market?
I don't think so, and it's horsesh-t that these candidates juked the system.
Posted by: saintpetersblog | July 02, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Any bets we see a "10th Place Finish" desert on the menu?
Posted by: :) | July 02, 2009 at 12:31 PM
er, dessert
Posted by: :) | July 02, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Peter, Your lack of political knowledge is showing again!
There are 2 fee's. The 1st fee is $250 and can be waived if enough petitions are gathered.
The 2nd is a State Election fee and is $1600. Thats the fee in question and you CANT avoid it by getting signatures. The hardship claim will get you out of it though.
Posted by: Zen Master | July 02, 2009 at 12:53 PM
The best thing about the fees is that they keep zero chance wanna-bes off the ballot and out of the "forums". The hardship loophole means my valuable time is spent listening to people who will be lucky to get one hundred votes from their friends and families.
What's the counter argument? That this way anyone can run? My God, if you don't have enough support to get signatures or raise enough to pay the fee, then you shouldn't waste the voter's time.
Listening to Congemi, Warren and Williams is a total waste of time and effort.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 02, 2009 at 04:25 PM
Warren should just hang with Conjobi and see how far they can ride this wave.
Warren should make fried chicken like KFC and he could surely get Conjobi's vote.
Posted by: shuturyap | July 02, 2009 at 04:35 PM
Yes Congemi is a great example of someone wasting our time. The guy is not right in the head, no doubt.
If though you read my post thats right above yours! you will see that the 2nd fee of $1600 can NOT.. let me repeat NOT! waived by collecting signatures.
So if a person of the people did want to run and did collect enough sig's to waive the 1st fee of $250 they still would owe another $1600!
$1600 is alot for races like City Council. It could keep quality candidates, who are not wealthy, from running. I would support closing the hardship loophole IF you could waive it by getting signatures.
Posted by: Zen Master | July 02, 2009 at 04:36 PM
It's roughly $1600 for mayor, $400 for City Council. The state charges a 1 percent fee based on the salary of the job the candidate seeks. Hope that helps!
Posted by: cristina silva | July 02, 2009 at 06:54 PM
Thanks CS!
Would love to see the numbers on how much the state actually collects on a year to year basis from this.
Posted by: Zen Master | July 02, 2009 at 08:43 PM
As a life long democrat and a person who worked on the Obama Campaign...AND a person who works for John I am really mad at the PUBLICITY theory. John has specifically told his staff not to answer any questions about his campaign. It was a huge concern that almost made him not run. He is NOT doing this as a publicity stunt. He actually cares about this city and wants to help it.
Posted by: CJ from St. Pete... | July 07, 2009 at 09:35 AM
Good for you CJ.
Like someone is going to say, I can't decide where I want to eat dinner, why don't we go to Savannah's because the owner is running for Mayor.
Posted by: saintpetersblog | July 07, 2009 at 10:00 AM