Kelly Benjamin Losing

I have thought of Kelly Benjamin as an attention whore since his pirate radio days. Benjamin was so incompetent as a campaign manager that Joe Redner fired him. When someone as lacking in campaign skills as Redner thinks Benjamin is bad then you know there is trouble. Unsurprisingly, Benjamin is having his ass handed to him by Charlie Miranda in the Tampa Council district 6 race.

in the District 6 raceeteran Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda continues to outdistance his sole challenger, Kelly Benjamin.

Including early and absentee votes, Miranda has 63 percent of the vote. Benjamin has 37 percent.

Progressives need to stop backing losers like Benjamin, Doug Tudor and Ed Turanchik. Mainstream voters find them weird. Benjamin once ran campaign for a strip club owner. Tudor bizarrely attacked fellow Democrat (who he wasn't running against) Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Turanchik has been a walking punchline with a record of not getting his insane ideas off-the-ground.

Newsflash to progressives: candidates like this will never win. The progressive base needs to push the Democratic establishment to the left. Republicans don't dare cross the tea party. Progressives need to instill that same level of fear in Democrats. Obama panders to the Chamber of Commerce because he believes progressives will fall in line in 2012. If Mitt Romney spoke to the SEIU the tea party movement would have his ass.

Progressives have a choice of backing goofy candidates with no choice of winning or fighting the Democratic establishment. The first option is guaranteed failure. The second option is the only choice progressives have.

Tampa City Council Passes Transgender Protection Ordinance

Great news: the Tampa City Council passed civil rights protections for transgender people 5 to 1. Councilman Charlie Miranda was the lone dissenting vote.

The new rule prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on "gender identity and expression," with that defined as someone who has an "inner sense of being a specific gender" regardless of their "assigned sex at birth."

Miranda said he voted no because he was afraid transgender people would create a disruption in the workplace. This attitude lead to the firing of Largo City city manager Susan Stanton. Largo garnered negative national publicity from Stanton's termination.

A big surprise was Councilman Tom Scott voting for the ordinance. Scott is a pastor at the socially conservative 34th Street Church of God. During his tenure on the Hillsborough County Commission, Scott voted for the ban of gay pride displays in county public libraries. Scott stated LGBT issues are not related to civil rights. Scott voting for the transgender ordinance is surprising.

"I did not sleep well last night. I spent most of my time as a Christian praying and seeking wisdom and direction on this particular ordinance," he said.

Scott said he wasn't intimidated by people who threatened not to vote for him if he supported the ordinance.

"The only vote I care about is God's vote," he said, noting that as a county commissioner he cast votes against gay issues.

Equality Florida is asking supporters to thank the Council for passing this ordinance. I am asking you to thank Terry Kemple for once again failing to achieve his silly Christian conservative agenda. Kemple attempted to stop Kevin Beckner from getting elected and a Valrico bikini bar from opening. Kemple failed on both counts. The L.A. Clippers have a better winning streak than Kemple. Send Kemple a message on Facebook and thank him for his lack of accomplishments.