With 53 percent of the votes, Bill Foster won the St. Petersburg mayoral election Tuesday, against opponent Kathleen Ford. For some, the result is not unexpected.
According to St. Pete Times Columnist, Howard Troxler, the formula is simple: “For at least 20 years, every mayoral election in St. Petersburg has featured a critic of City Hall vs. a candidate preferred by the downtown and business establishment.” He said this year’s election was the “same dance, same result.”
Foster’s win is tied to his traditional views of keeping the city going in the right direction. He had support from the city’s police, business groups and former and current elected officials, while advertising his shared views with former mayor, Rick Baker.
Baker proudly endorsed Foster over Ford during the 2009 campaigns.
Ricky Lehner, a 21-year-old USF student, made sure to cast a ballot at the voting booth this year. “I think that as someone who manages a business downtown, he will probably end up being the better mayor for businesses, but this is just me looking for the good in him winning,” he said.
“I wanted Ford to win,” Lehner said. “I don't want Foster to come in and just continue running things like Baker has been, with all the crooked business deals that they (republicans) give to all their business friends.”
Although Ford lost the 2009 race, results show that she did gain more votes compared to her 2001 loss to Rick Baker. With her reformist views that most of the city opposed, she still managed to stack up 47 percent of the votes. That is, of the small percentage that actually voted.
Foster had 24,289 votes. Ford had 21,761 votes. The city of St. Petersburg has 156,478 registered voters. Something does not add up.
The St. Pete Times said that a low voter turnout was already expected for this election, since it was scheduled in an “off year” from state and national elections. According to Supervisor of Elections, Deborah Clark, the turnout would have been higher if St. Pete synched its elections with state and national voting dates.
The city uses this awkward scheduling process to “rid local elections of greasy machine politics” that go hand-in-hand with major national races, according to the Times. However, this also has a lasting effect for voter turnouts in St. Petersburg.
Voter turnout for specific age groups is unknown in this election, but Lehner is proud to exercise his right to be heard.
“Young people think that the decisions being made today don't affect them at all, so they don't care,” he said. “People elected now are the same people who are going to be in power, say, when we graduate college, at which point the young people now might think it matters, but when their opinion really mattered was at election time right now,” Lehner said.
Fiery debate issues teetered until the final ballot was counted this year. Debate topics varied between things like crime control, businesses, Baywalk, the Downtown area and property tax.
One citizen concern was a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays and the possibility of St. Petersburg losing its devoted baseball team.
The Tropicana Field matter is now in the hands of Foster, who says he’s not willing to let the team leave the city, according to a Times article. The Ray’s lease is up in 2026 and Foster would like to see them play through it.
Ford said that the stadium issue is not one of the most important issues to be focused on and had planned to sue the Rays if they tried to break their lease before it expired. “We’re one third of the way into that lease agreement. And I think The Trop is just fine,” she said.
The article also states that candidates want the final decision to be up to the citizens, but Foster believed the city would have lost the Rays if Ford was elected.
Lehner thinks that the Rays should stay and play. “I think from an economic point of view, it would be important for the Rays to stay in St. Pete,” he said.
In his acceptance speech at Ferg’s Sports Bar, Foster claimed that he would work to win over the citizens that did not vote for him in the election: “47 percent of voters didn’t agree with me, and I will work to try and earn their respect every day,” he said.
*proper sources have been cited in submitted version of my paper*
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