Redner Campaign

Joe Redner has officially announced he is running for the Hillsborough County Commission. Redner will run for the district 5 seat. District 5 is one of three district seats which represents the whole county.

Redner's campaign manager is former 87X pirate radio host and Weekly Planet contributor Kelly Benjamin. The former radio host unsuccessfully ran for Tampa City Council.

Redner has unveiled his Contract with the Voters of Hillsborough County. It's not bad. The two problems is Redner has no base of support and no professional campaign staff. My advice to Benjamin is to ask fellow Weekly Planet writer Wayne Garcia a lot of questions. Garcia has worked on several campaigns. Garcia wouldn't offically go anywhere near the Redner campaign. That's why asking for friendly advice with the power of cheap booze is always a good thing.

One thing that Redner should have done, as an outsider, is point out the white wash ethics investigations of county officials. See here and here. There is serious need for ethics reform at the city and county level. If the Feds never went after Steve Labrake, he may still have a job in Tampa government. Redner dropped the ball by not grabbing that issue.