Supervisor of Election Race Gets Interesting

Phyllis Busansky confirmed to Wayne Garcia that she is running for Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. Busansky will run against Lee Nelson in the Democratic primary. It's rather obvious that both Democratic candidates view current incombent Buddy Johnson as vulnerable.

Busansky is part of the Tampa area Democratic establishment. My concern is her candidacies look better on paper than reality. She ran for Congress in 1996 and 2006. She was defeated both times. She would be a vast improvement over the scandal-plagued Johnson. Can she win a county wide vote? Busansky was backed by the DCCC and by the local Democratic establishment. She still manages to lose to Gus Bilirakis.

In Busansky, the District 9 seat has been held for years by Republican Mike Bilirakis. His son Gus had the advantage of name recognition.

Lee Nelson is not widely known to the public. It is extremely difficult to get voters engaged while the Iraq war and presidential race dominates the news cycle. Nelson has been effective giving memorable quotes dissing Johnson's record.

My hope is that Busansky and Nelson don't tear each other to sheds in the primary. Hillsborough County does not need another term of Buddy Jonson's incompetence and corruption.