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St. Petersburg, Miami set to elect new mayors

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The Associated Press

Published: November 1, 2009

Miami and St. Petersburg will select new mayors Tuesday with the candidates disagreeing over economic plans for their respective cities and the construction of stadiums for baseball's Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays.

In St. Petersburg, both Kathleen Ford and Bill Foster are lawyers and former city commissioners. They are vying to replace popular Mayor Rick Baker, who was also limited to two four-year terms.

The two emerged from a crowded field of 10 candidates in the September primary, although it is the 46-year-old Foster who has the support of the city business and political establishment, including Baker.

Despite Foster having outspent Ford in the campaign by a wide margin, the two have remained close in the polls.

Ford, 52, developed a grass-roots campaign built on volunteers and sharp criticism of the status quo and what she says is a political good ol' boy network in Florida's fourth-largest city. She has been an outspoken critic of Baker's administration and challenged him unsuccessfully for mayor in 2001. She served on the city council from 1997 to 2001.

Ford proposes changes that include lowering the city's tax rate and using some of the city's healthy cash reserves to improve public safety. Foster, a council member from 1998 to 2008, said he will continue Baker's policies and suggests that few major changes are necessary.

One of the issues on which they sharply disagree is whether the Rays need a new stadium. Ford said the city has more pressing issues than helping the team finance a new ball park. She wants to hold the Rays to terms of their lease, which has them playing at Tropicana Field until 2027.

Foster has said that if Ford is elected the city could lose the team. He wants to keep an open dialogue about a new stadium that would keep the Rays in St. Petersburg. The Rays have said a new open-air stadium will be necessary in the coming years for the team to compete.

The mayor's race is supposed to be nonpartisan, but some typically partisan themes have emerged.

Foster has been dogged by questions about his religious beliefs after he sent a controversial letter to the Pinellas School Board urging members to allow discussion about alternatives to the theory of evolution.

Ford suggested Foster's publicly stated belief in creationism rather the scientifically supported theory of evolution could hurt the city's chances of attracting industries based in science and technology.

Foster said his religious beliefs have nothing to do with how he would govern the city.

In Miami, the state's second-largest city, candidates Tomas Regalado and Joe Sanchez, are both city commissioners. They are vying to replace outgoing mayor Manny Diaz, who has served two four-year terms and can't run again.

Regalado, 62, was born in Havana and came to Miami with his younger brother in the so-called "Pedro Pan Flights" of the early 1960s. A former television reporter, Regalado was first elected as a city commissioner in 1996.

Sanchez, a Cuban-born former state trooper, was appointed to his commission seat in June 1998 and has since been elected to two four-year terms. He is now the commission chairman.

Sanchez says he wants to focus on jump starting the city's economy, which has suffered during the national economic downturn. He says he favors the investment of tax dollars on public projects to create more local jobs, improve transit and strengthen public safety.

Regalado also says he will focus on growth and economic development, but adds that any major city-financed projects should be placed before the voters.

The two commissioners disagreed the Marlins stadium, which began construction in July.

Earlier this year, Sanchez voted with the majority when city commissioners approved a plan to build a 37,000-seat retractable roof stadium for the Marlins in the city's Little Havana neighborhood. Regalado opposed the $620 million plan as being "a very bad deal" for city. Its primary contribution is the construction of a parking structure that is now estimated to cost up to $135 million, up from an original estimate of $94 million.

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