Republican Nick DiCeglie is holding a fundraiser next week to get his House District 66 campaign off the ground, and Tuesday he released a host committee showing dozens of local officials who will come to show their support.
Ed Hooper, the former Republican State Representative and Clearwater City Commissioner, will be featured at a high-profile fundraiser Wednesday in his bid for Florida Senate. Hooper is seeking to succeed term-limited Jack Latvala in Senate District 16, which covers much of north Pinellas County. A reception will begin 5 PM at Mugs ‘N Jugs, 40737 U.S. Highway 19 N. in Tarpon Springs. Hosts of the event, which currently number about 70 influential Tampa Bay-area political leaders, include Brian Aungst Jr.,…
Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly on Wednesday presented an American flag to Laura Neri, the widow of community activist Ray Neri, who died Jan. 3. The flag was one that U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis had had flown over the Capitol especially for Mrs. Neri. “Ray Neri was a special person,” Jolly said. “Ray touched peoples’ lives.” Jolly was only one of many of Pinellas’ political leaders who came to Neri’s memorial service. Others included Pinellas County commissioners Pat Gerard, Karen…
In a show of bipartisan support, former elected officials Alex Sink, a Democrat, and Neil Brickfield, a Republican, have endorsed Joe Ayoub for Mayor of Safety Harbor. Ayoub launched his campaign just a few weeks ago and is gaining strong momentum. Ayoub says he brings a record of balancing the city’s budget, working with fellow community leaders to solve issues and a commonsense plan for managing progress while maintaining Safety Harbor’s small town charm. “I support Joe because he has a…
Almost 500 people showed up Friday morning to hear stories about the successes of the Pinellas Sheriff’s PAL program. The Police Athletic League program, which opened in Pinellas in 2001, is currently focused on helping underprivileged kids in the unincorporated Lealman area. Lealman is generally located between Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg and I-275 and Park Street. Kenneth City divides the area into two. Lealman is a “very under-served part of Pinellas [with] a lot of kids, a lot of…
Good morning, y’all. Regular readers of this column may note that it’s being posted a little later this morning. Not to get into Too Much Information, but let’s just say I think when I read Arianna Huffington write that you must have 7/8 hours a sleep every night, well, one can certainly aspire to that. Rumor has it that Tampa attorney Bob Buesing will declare his candidacy as a Democrat for the newly created Senate District 18 seat in Hillsborough County on Monday. Local Dems…
A list regular for years (14 on last year’s list), the GOP lawmaker from Trinity chaired the influential Senate Committee on Education Pre-K-12. He’s effectively killed several education bills simply by not scheduling hearings for them. Legg’s legacy on education policy will be extensive when he calls it a career in Tallahassee. He spent five years working on creating end-of-course exams. He helped rewrite the state’s school grading system, and advocated for a greater connection between teacher evaluations and student…
