Browning to settle score? Gadd!

Column

Pasco County's hottest political rumor may be less than two months old, but if Kurt Browning does leap into the race for schools superintendent, the ultimate barnburner of a Republican primary will result from a spark struck by incumbent Heather Fiorentino nearly three years ago.

(Cue eerie time-travel music.)

It's June 2009, eight months since Fiorentino coasted to re-election promising "no paradigm shift(s)," and the school boardroom is wall-to-wall with stunned witnesses, mouths agape. Her vow came with an expiration date and, declaring amorphous plans to steer in "a new direction," the superintendent has announced she won't be renewing the contract of Assistant Superintendent Ray Gadd.

Fiorentino's supporters are no less stunned than her devout skeptics, and one — Browning — likely pivoted from supporter to skeptic to, ultimately, rival, on that very dime.

To his enduring credit, Gadd, a preternaturally cheerful and effective policy wonk, exited without rancor. He left it to others to cite his handiwork in the district's triumphs, including passage of the Penny for Pasco sales tax referendum and partnering with the county on collocating schools and parks.

No close observer of Gadd's worker-bee activities sensed he longed to rule the hive. Gadd was a tireless facilitator, the happy catalyst of alloyed relationships that served his and the district's goals, which were indistinguishable.

But Gadd was a holdover from an earlier, Democratic administration, and Fiorentino was within her rights to make changes. The upcoming campaign season will witness the wisdom of that choice.

However threatened she felt, Fiorentino might have been better served to heed Michael Corleone's advice in "The Godfather II": "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

Now, if what Pasco Republican State Committeeman Bill Bunting has been hearing in Tallahassee since before Thanksgiving proves true, here comes the soon-to-be former Florida secretary of state serving up a cold dish of political vengeance.

Fiorentino could not have drawn a more formidable campaign obstacle. Browning, a Pasco native, served effectively and without blemish as the county's elections supervisor for 26 years. He might have made a career of it — like Stan Musial and the St. Louis Cardinals — if not summoned, twice, by governors to apply his reputation for nonpartisan honesty, efficiency and meticulousness to statewide elections.

Browning's character and skill set are scarcely overrepresented among elected officials, and that's why voters may be willing to overlook his lack of experience in Big Education, or that he has never dealt with a public-sector union. Heck, some voters will regard his outsider status not as a bug, but a feature.

Not that we have any prominent difficulties with Fiorentino. By any gauge, Pasco's public schools under her supervision have thrived despite difficult economic and cultural conditions.

But Browning and Gadd are pals, and pals don't forget when somebody does the other one wrong. If Browning wins the big chair, you can bet Gadd's reward will be a prominent seat at a familiar table.