$1 beats $4-plus; That's MR. Redner To You, Bub
The candidate with the most money often wins in politics, but not always. You can win without the most money if you have the most of something else -- energy, organization, work, message.
Tuesday saw an impressive upset win by Mary Mulhern, who beat two-term City Council incumbent Shawn Harrison in Tuesday's city elections in Tampa. Harrison had more than four times as much money. No doubt lots of folks will be telling Mulhern that they knew all along she had it in the bag, but I confess I didn't know it -- my apology for the lack of faith, Madame Council Member-Elect. To show my age, this outcome is a little like Phyllis Busansky's 1988 stunning upset of council member Tom Vann in a County Commission race. It turns out anything is possible after all.
And at long last, after several tries for public office, Joe Redner got into a City Council runoff against incumbent Gwen Miller to be held March 27. Very interesting! Redner has gotten better and better as a candidate, and actually carried the city precincts in his last try for the County Commission. Miller is vulnerable. But it's not a given. I know lots of people who voted for Redner as a novelty or as an alternative in a crowded field, but the test is whether they are willing to continue to overlook his day job (famous strip-club owner, in case you somehow haven't heard of him) now that he is so close to winning... look out for an Anybody-But-Redner campaign, Joe.
Oh, and Mayor Pam Iorio got re-elected with a zillion percent of the vote.
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Howard, I've been commenting on your blog for a week or so, but now you've decided that my posts are spam? This seems like a strange way to get people to participate in the disucssion.
Posted by: Ron | March 07, 2007 at 03:48 PM
Howard here. I haven't done anything myself. What are your symptoms? Either there's an error somewhere, or else something about your post(s) triggered our moderator-guy to blip it (see the multi-point policy to the left). I'll ask.
Posted by: Howard Troxler | March 07, 2007 at 05:38 PM
So you owe me $4 beer, right Howard?
Posted by: Cam | March 08, 2007 at 02:19 PM
Well Howard, I was trying to comment on Ronda Storms, bur your site returns:
An error occurred...
Your comment has not been posted because we think it might be comment spam. If you believe you have received this message in error, please contact the author of this weblog.
Nothing vulgar or improper in my post. It let's me post here, but not on Ronda's story.
Posted by: Ron | March 08, 2007 at 03:20 PM
I'd love to know why it objects to my comments and interprets them as spam.
Posted by: Ron | March 08, 2007 at 03:22 PM
Ron: That's interesting! I have no idea why it would think you were a spammer in commenting on one post but not another. I will ask our web folks. In the meantime, if you are just dying to get it posted on the Ronda item, e-mail it to me and I will put it there. Unless, of course, it's spam. :)
troxblog@sptimes.com - be sure and ID yourself so I'll know it's you --
Posted by: Howard Troxler | March 08, 2007 at 03:43 PM
A follow-up from Howard: I never got an e-mail either, so either our computers REALLY don't like something about your computer -- but why could your posts above get through? -- or else something else is wrong.
Posted by: Howard Troxler | March 12, 2007 at 11:04 AM