Progressives Help Bring Substance to St. Pete Mayoral Race
| By Ray Seaman - Jul 1st, 2009 at 9:50 am EDT |
| Also listed in: Front Page Posters |
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Categories: Progressive Movement, Media, Local Government, Campaign 2010
Categories: Progressive Movement, Media, Local Government, Campaign 2010
If you've ever followed a local election, you often know they're fraught with personalities and process stories that turn off voters. You never seem to learn what they actually want to do if elected. It's one of the reasons why local, particularly city elections, are won by dozens or hundreds of votes - often a consequence of such a low turnout that would make the founding fathers want to cover their faces in embarrassment.
It's unclear how much voters care about the biggest political race in Florida in 2009: the race for the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida's 4th largest city. However, progressive groups including Progress Florida, SEIU's city workers union, Florida Consumer Action Network, Clean Water Action, and the Alliance for a Livable Pinellas sponsored a debate last night which attracted more people and fleshed out more substantive answers than anything previous. Imagine that!
This is a testament to how progressives, when united, can both do a great service for the public and demonstrate the importance of our issues.
It's unclear how much voters care about the biggest political race in Florida in 2009: the race for the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida's 4th largest city. However, progressive groups including Progress Florida, SEIU's city workers union, Florida Consumer Action Network, Clean Water Action, and the Alliance for a Livable Pinellas sponsored a debate last night which attracted more people and fleshed out more substantive answers than anything previous. Imagine that!
Whatever the reason, the candidates for mayor engaged in their most substantial conversation about policy yet Tuesday, offering specific solutions to economic and environmental concerns during a debate hosted by local progressive groups. There were still a few silly jokes, some shallow answers. But, for the most part, the candidates offered new insight about how they would lead the city.
This is a testament to how progressives, when united, can both do a great service for the public and demonstrate the importance of our issues.
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It is dawning upon the right-of-centrists that they have been led astray by the neo-con and religious extremists.
This bodes well for the more grounded candidates, and especially for Scott Wagman. Here is a fiscal conservative with genuinely liberal social views. He is a breath of fresh air in a stale political scene, and the voters are beginning to realize it.
He is picking up support from all sides of the spectrum, even labor, as people are learning he has been unfairly labled, and perhaps even libeled.
St. Petersburg will be well served by Scott, who is a pragmatic liberal in all senses of the phrase.