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Looking For Leadership Not So Easy

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By STEVE OTTO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

Florida House District 56 is a mess. Of course, we are talking mostly Brandon here, an afterthought in Hillsborough politics. And I've never understood why.

When I was a kid in South Tampa, my best friend and his family moved to Brandon. This was in the '60s, and they might as well have been moving to Brazil. In those days Brandon was a few new subdivisions surrounded by cows. We all figured we would never see them again.

Today, Brandon is the largest unincorporated community in Florida. It is the definition of sprawl, with more than 100,000 souls moving slowly in congested traffic along fast-food freeways.

One of the problems is that nobody seems to be in charge. Brandon is in Hillsborough County, which currently operates under the seven-headed monster form of government with commissioners representing various parts of the county. The guy who represents most of Brandon happens to live in Plant City.

There is a movement to change county government and elect a county mayor, but right now the courts and the legal beagles are wrapped up trying to write a paragraph or two that makes sense in order to get it on the ballot. So far they have failed.

Then there is Florida House District 56, a legislative gerrymandering that runs from Valrico to Davis Islands, off downtown Tampa. When incumbent Republican Trey Traviesa, for reasons that still seem a little cloudy, pulled out of the race last week, chaos stepped in.

The Democrats, who expected to lose anyhow, had a candidate who wasn't even a Democrat when he entered. They now see the light and are trying to replace their original candidate, who didn't have a prayer.

Meanwhile, the Republicans, expected to bring in a veteran name such as Sandy Murman, instead are now going with Traviesa's 26-year-old aide, Rachel Burgin, who does not currently live in the district and whose campaign slogan is, apparently, "I will move."

The sad truth is that District 56's woes run deeper and are symptomatic of "Legislature Lite," which is what the Florida Legislature has become.

I talked to former Florida Speaker of the House Terrell Sessums, who was a member of the Hillsborough delegation back when not only did the Legislature carry more weight, but so did the local delegation.

"I can give you three, maybe four reasons for the current state of affairs," said Sessums. "One, of course, was the move to term limits. This happened along with the growing strength of the governor and the weakening of the Legislature.

"Another was the move to single-member districts, which in effect narrowed the potential candidate pool," Sessums continued. "A third was the gerrymandering of districts to where a special interest or party dominates a district that is twisted all over the place geographically so that one party will always control it. Districts no longer reflect particular areas. They need to be more compact, like political neighborhoods.

"And I think I would include a fourth reason, and that is the growing influence of partisan politics into the process. Today so much money is funneled in and out of party coffers to these races, the candidates are often less committed to the issues than to party politics."

Sessums was right on the money, which shouldn't make the voters in District 56 feel any better about what's happening, except that in Florida they are hardly alone.

Keyword, Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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