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Candidates Qualify For Ballot

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By JULIA FERRANTE and LISA A. DAVIS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

County commission chairman Ted Schrader and Tampa firefighter John Nicolette will face off in a closed Republican primary Aug. 26 in probably the biggest surprise of qualifying day Friday.

The winner will face John Taylor in the November general election. Taylor joined the District 1 commission race as a last-minute write-in candidate to ensure the GOP primary is decided within that party, he said.

"As a Republican, I feel very strongly that Republicans should vote for Republicans," said Taylor, of Wesley Chapel. "It's as simple as that."

With no Democratic, independent, third party or write-in candidate in the race, all registered voters in Pasco would have been allowed to cast ballots in the Republican primary. Even though he belongs to the GOP, Taylor's entry as a write-in means that only Republicans will be able to vote in that primary.

Another Republican who filed paperwork to run for Schrader's District 1 seat, former Zephyrhills council member Gina King, did not qualify by the noon Friday deadline. She said she wouldn't have been able to campaign because of a new out-of-town work assignment for Verizon.

Taylor, operations manager of Decorator's Office Furniture in Tampa, said no one within Pasco's Republican Executive Committee urged him to run as a write-in.

Pasco GOP chairman Bill Bunting confirmed there was no organized effort to close the District 1 Republican primary.

"There's no reason for it," he said. "There are two good candidates. They both have run a respectable campaign - so far."

The GOP did recruit a write-in candidate in the 2004 schools superintendent contest between Republicans Heather Fiorentino and Chuck Rushe.

"That was a different story," Bunting said. "In that one, the teachers' union would have come out strongly for Rushe, and the teachers' union is strongly Democratic. I've never known them to support a Republican."

In the District 3 county commission race, incumbent Ann Hildebrand, who is seeking a seventh four-year term, faces two other Republicans in the primary: electrician Matt Matey of Elfers and homeowners insurance activist Wil Nickerson. The winner will run against whoever prevails in the Democratic contest between business owner Terri Conroy and Nicholas Planck, a retired U.S. Coast Guard electronics technician. Both live in New Port Richey.

The incumbent in the District 5 commission race, Jack Mariano, faces Republican Rich Jenkins of Hudson in the primary. The winner will meet Democrat Ginny Miller, a former New Port Richey council member, in the November general election.

Two other candidates who declared intentions to run in District 5 - Democrat Lance Shortt of Hudson and Republican George F. Vera - did not qualify. Vera spent much of the past few months in the county jail on a battery charge.

Winning The Easy Way

Four candidates who drew no opposition automatically won re-election Friday. They are Property Appraiser Mike Wells, Tax Collector Mike Olson, Pasco County Judge Paul E. Firmani and Kathryn Starkey, chairwoman of the Pasco County School Board.

Sheriff's Race Pits 5

Two Democrats, an independent and a fellow Republican have qualified to challenge Sheriff Bob White in his bid for a third term as Pasco's top police officer.

Republican Robert Sullivan, 46, retired from the agency after 26 years, working his way up to lieutenant commanding the vice narcotics unit. He now teaches at the University of North Florida's Institution of Police Technology and Management and at Pasco-Hernando Community College.

White, 57, is a former Brooksville police officer, Sumter County sheriff's deputy, Florida Highway Patrol trooper and agent for the state's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco.

On the Democratic side are:

•Kim Bogart, 56, who was fired from his job as a sheriff's office captain when White came into office in January 2001. He is executive director of the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission and a consultant.

•Jeff Deremer, 38, who has lived in Pasco most of his life and is a 15-year officer with the Florida Department of Corrections' Bureau of Probation and Parole.

•Bobby Kinzy, 60, a retired TECO employee and Vietnam War veteran, is a registered Democrat but is running with no party affiliation.

To secure a spot on the ballot, prospective candidates for sheriff had to submit a petition with 2,632 valid signatures - representing 1 percent of registered voters - or pay a fee equal to 6 percent of the sheriff's annual salary. This year's fee was $8,699.46. All five candidates qualified by signature petitions.

Trio Vies For School Board

Kurt Conover, Peter Hanzel and Joanne Hurley qualified to run for the school board's District 2 seat, from which Marge Whaley is retiring after four terms.

School board elections are nonpartisan.

In the race for superintendent, both Fiorentino, the Republican incumbent, and Democrat Stephen Donaldson, a Gulf High teacher, have moved on to the November election without a challenge within their respective parties.

Michelle Rehm of Holiday had filed to run for superintendent as an independent but did not qualify for the ballot.

Clerk Court's Race Draws 3

Republicans Paula O'Neil and Dan Tipton will square off in the primary to decide who will face Democrat Robert N. Altman in the general election to replace retiring Clerk of the Court Jed Pittman.

O'Neil is Pittman's chief deputy. Tipton is a former New Port Richey mayor. Altman, a New Port Richey lawyer, lost a bid to unseat Pitman in 2004.

The clerk serves a four-year term. In addition to overseeing court records, clerks of the circuit court in Florida act as county treasurer, recorder, auditor, finance officer and clerk of the county commission.

Elections Chief Challenged

Democrat Patricia A. Carroll hopes to unseat Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley in the general election.

An attorney, Carroll has a north Tampa-based practice specializing in real estate, probate and trust law. Corley, former personnel director for the Pasco sheriff's office, was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist in January 2007 to replace Kurt Browning.

2 Face Off With Incumbent

Incumbent Sandra Applefield faces two challengers for a spot on the Pasco County Mosquito Control District's governing board.

They are former Port Richey councilwoman and marketing executive Nancy Britton, and J. Steve Luikart, an assistant principal at River Ridge Middle/High School.

Applefield, first elected in 1997, was unopposed in the past two countywide elections and is chairwoman of the three-member board.

Incumbent Gary Joiner, who was unopposed, automatically wins another four-year term.

Created in 1951 to control pests on Pasco's marshy west coast, the district expanded in 2003 to include the entire county amid concerns about the spread of West Nile virus.

The district's annual budget has increased about tenfold, to roughly $4 million, since the early 1970s, and the number of full-time workers has grown to more than two dozen.

Board members receive an annual stipend of $4,800.

Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com. Staff writers David Sommer, Ronnie Blair and Christian M. Wade contributed to this report.

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