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Yes, Ms. Stiles Will Need Some More Olives

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Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 7, 2008

Who knows if Tampa lawyer Mary Ann Stiles is a drinking woman, but if not, she certainly could be forgiven if she's devoted herself since Friday mostly to some serious quality time with a fifth of Boodles gin.

For the past three years, Stiles has worked assiduously to get a referendum on this November's ballot that would give voter approval to the creation of an elected county mayor post.

And she was within a baby's breath of seeing her efforts succeed, only to learn late last week that for want of a digit, a campaign can be lost. More ice, Mary Ann?

Hillsborough County Circuit Judge James Arnold, presiding over a lawsuit against the proposal brought by Democratic activist James Shirk, ruled that the measure should be struck from November's ballot. He agreed that the wording was improper.
Stiles originally collected thousands of petition signatures to place the county mayor issue before the voters in 2006, but her work fell short of qualifying for the ballot.

A Pyrrhic Victory, At Best

Alas, Stiles did eventually prevail in garnering enough signatures for the 2008 ballot, but it turned out to be something of a pyrrhic victory.

Shirk noted that the original petitions asked signatories to approve a ballot measure for the 2006 election cycle, which, if successful, would have then called for the county mayor election to occur in 2008.

And that's the problem, Shirk argued (and it's hard to take issue with his reasoning) that because Stiles never changed the language of her petitions, voters were now being asked to approve a ballot measure requiring an election for county mayor in - well, right now - 2008, when the earliest such an election could take place would not be before 2010.

Or put another way, for want of a digit, a campaign, and more than three years of work would now possibly be lost. And yes, Ms. Stiles needs more olives.

It's Tough To Pass Muster
Stiles has promised to appeal Arnold's ruling. There's probably some fancy legalese for her argument, which will be boiled down to, "Hey, we didn't think anyone would notice."

But in a state that has been so gaga to organize petition drives for every imaginable beef people have with government, we've also learned referendum language needs to be fairly precise to pass muster to get on a ballot.

As well, Stiles is an accomplished lawyer in her own right. Surely she had to realize asking voters to approve the post of county mayor in the exact same cycle they were being asked to approve the election for the job itself was, to put it kindly, more flawed than the Zimbabwe elections.

Ever a glutton for punishment, Stiles has promised, even if she loses her appeal, to press ahead with a county mayor initiative for some future election date.

To be sure, the idea of creating an elected county mayor makes sense, considering that when it comes to fawning over development interests, the current power structure of the Hillsborough County Commission is more compromised than Stephanie Ragusa becoming dean of students at Boys Town.

And that might inspire Mary Ann Stiles to carry on. Oh, yes, Ms. Stiles needs more ice.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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