It’s Election Time Again! Many of you have already mailed a ballot to vote for the replacement of C. W. “Bill” Young, our longest serving national representative in Washington. If you live in St. Pete Beach, South Pasadena or Gulfport, you may have already voted for a new mayor, or commissioner for your district. Treasure Island did not have an election this year as we mentioned last month, as both Alan Bildz and Tom Ramsberger were reelected unopposed. If you are undecided or a procrastinator, you have until 6:59 pm on March 11 to make up your mind.
St. Pete Beach is living up to it’s reputation as the political center of the barrier islands, as three contested races come down to the wire.
It is not our job to tell you who to vote for. We do not even believe in media endorsing candidates for public office. It is our job simply to see that you have all the information you need to make an informed choices. We can also sometimes help when a candidate’s memory seems inaccurate about issues they supported, or didn’t.
In this case, it appears everyone ran a pretty clean campaign. There were some flyers that surfaced from a prior election leveling outlandish charges at Mayor McFarlin. His opponent, Maria Lowe, appeared before the City Commission to apologize and attest to a complete lack of knowledge about how that could have occurred, when she learned that some copies of that flyer somehow got onto her computer and were attached to emails she had sent out in connection with her campaign.
She had promised to run a clean campaign and appeared honestly aghast that even an appearance of impropriety had occurred. Her timing was unfortunate, as she had missed the audience comments portion of the meeting. All reports indicate that she made up for that misstep at the mayoral debate, spo
nsored by the League of Women Voters.
Considering her relative newcomer status as a 19-month resident of St. Pete Beach, Lowe was well prepared. She has run a very active campaign, including a series of “cookie conversations” in parks all over town, ad in living rooms and condominium club houses. It is difficult to unseat an incumbent mayor who appears to have filled the position well, but I believe Maria Lowe has done the best job a newcomer can. Both the Pinellas Realtors Organization and the SPB Firefighters support her.
Steve McFarlin is a 50-year resident of St. Pete Beach who has presided over the City Commission through some challenging times. The results of the balloting in the mayor’s race at this point are anyone’s guess.
District 1 in St. Pete Beach runs south from the Blind Pass Bridge through the Corey Business District. Many condos are included, mostly at the north end of the city, on the east side of Blind Pass Road and along the intercoastal waterway. There’s Captiva Cay, and St. Pete Beach Yacht and Tennis Club, where both Candidates live.
Commissioner and 28-year resident Lorraine Huhn has served on the Board of her Condominium and Master Association. She was best known as founder of and spokesperson for SOLV, the pro-redevelopment political action committee that led the city in a battle to affirm the city’s revised comprehensive plan. She has become an involved and respected member of the commission in her two years on the job.
Lorraine is opposed by Dr. Terri Finnerty, former ‘first lady’ of St. Pete Beach, whose husband started his political career in this seat, winning almost 60 percent of the vote against incumbent Deborah Martohue in 2006. Terri is endorsed by the Pinellas Realtors and the St. Pete Beach Firefighters. “Preserving our way of life while moving forward” is her campaign slogan. Terri has undergraduate degrees from Montclair (NJ) University and a Ed.D., Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Houston. In addition to her work as VP of Support our Troops, her Facebook page lists membership in the Pass-a-Grille Woman’s Club and Organizer of a volunteer team to staff All Children’s Hospital, Annual Wiffle Ball Tournament as her local activities.
District 3 in St. Pete Beach runs south from Dolphin Village shopping center through Belle Vista to the Don CeSar. Commissioner Marvin Shavlan resigned shortly before the end of his term when his home sold in 10 days, and he moved up the beach. Ex-commissioner & ex-mayor Ward Frizolowski was unanimously selected to fill out his term. Meanwhile, two political newcomers are vying for his seat.
James Anderson, a retired firefighter, is endorsed by his comrades in the St. Pete Beach department. The Pinellas Board of Realtors chose to endorse his opponent, Greg Premer. Anderson’s campaign mailer names his first campaign priority as”prevent unfair taxes and assessments on the citizens of St. Pete Beach.” Ironically, his lawsuit against the city, one of several suits argued by maverick attorney Ken Weiss, has, in essence, inflicted just such a tax of almost a half million dollars on the taxpayers here. Premer, married and father of three, is a six-year member of the city’s recreation advisory board, a 22-year resident who has traded presidency and VP of the Belle Vista Civic Association with Ward Frizilowski for 12 years. Premer, an account executive in the scoreboard business that sells scoreboards to towns and cities around Florida. I’ve seen the good and the bad and can tell the difference.” he said.
Story by Peter Roos
Date: March 2014