Boring Ass Ed Turanchik Internet Ad

Why is Tampa mayor candidate Ed Turanchik spending money on internet ads that no one will watch? At the time of this post, this ad has only been viewed 107 on Youtube.

The ad itself is a bunch of people know one knows and I include Pushing Rope hater Doug Tudor in that category. I wrote that Tudor can not get elected to Congress. Tudor sent out an email calling me a Blue Dog. Tudor ended up losing the district 12 Democratic primary. What his hysterical is Tudor is the biggest name in his horrible ad. One would guess that Turanchik's years of using the public sector for bizarre schemes (Olympics in Tampa) to fatten the wallets of corporate cronies would produce heavyweight endorsements. You guess wrong.

The ad looks as if it was filmed in a vampire's basement. Was the director trying to make a campaign ad or do a remake of David Fincher's Se7en. It wouldn't hurt if someone turned on the lights. The viewer should at least be able to see some random person talk about how much Turanchik supports things that poll well.

Policy Wonks Need Not Apply to Tampa Mayor's Race

I find it rather troubling that Tampa mayor frontrunner Dick Greco does not have an issues page on his web site. It suggests that Greco hasn't thought about policy or his so cocky that he feels he doesn't have to outline his positions.

Republican candidate has a poorly designed web page that allows to scroll over her positions. Under public safety: it seems clear that Ferlita disagrees with Gov. Rick Scott's decision to eliminate the Office of Drug Control.

As a pharmacist and Commissioner, I worked with the Governor’s Office of Drug Control to implement legislation instituting a prescription drug monitoring program. Given that Governor Scott has eliminated the Office of Drug Control, and because of the ongoing understaffing at the State level with regards to drug issues in our State, I intend to redirect more of the City's resources to enforce state and local laws. Additionally, I intend to reassign more officers to exclusively focus on tackling this epidemic. I will continue to work with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office, Hillsborough County government, other regional county governments, drug task forces, a multitude of committees, neighborhoods and citizens who want to share in this war against drugs. Collaborative efforts will be our strength and our success.

Having spoken with our Attorney General, Pam Bondi, she clearly understands that I am eager to assist her office, and specifically, Mr. Dave Aronberg, in Florida's war against drugs. As a pharmacist and as a local elected official, I have always been front and center against this epidemic. My position will be the same as Mayor of Tampa. As Mayor, I will make sure that the message is clear: "The Ferlita Administration will have zero tolerance for this horrible drug epidemic that leads to deaths of our youth due to overdoses. This is a huge public safety issue and it will be addressed under my watch."

Ferlita wants to eliminate excessive regulations and form public and private partnerships. This places the Republican Ferlita is the same position as President Obama on regulations.

Ferlita supports green initiatives such as electric cars and reclaimed water.

Candidate Tom Scott has an issues page with no information on it. I wonder if Scott was hoping no one would click the link at the top of his homepage.

Bob Buckhorn as been running for mayor forever and still doesn't have a issues page on his web site. Buckhorn didn't even bother to outline his anti-lap dance platform.

Ed Turanchik wants buses to have WIFI internet access. Turanchik is the king of goofy ideas. Turanchik lobbied to bring the 2012 summer Olympics to Tampa. Never mind that Tampa wasn't feasible for holding the Olympics. The rest of Turanchik's policy page is talking points.

Think about it: of all the transportation problems Tampa has who but Turanchik would place WIFI access on Hartline buses on the top of the agenda?

Conclusion: with the exception of Ferlita, none of the other candidates have articulated what they want to do as mayor. The reason there has been a lack of media coverage about the race is because the candidates aren't really saying anything. Bob Buckhorn's two years of campaigning is about to be crushed by Greco and he is still playing it safe on policy. These candidates make Alex Sink look like a bold policy candidate.

Correction: Bob Buckhorn has a lengnthy policy plan. I will write a post on Buckhorn's plan when I get the chance. Thanks to Buckhorn to pointing out my mistake.

If any other candidates have plans feel free to email me.

Tampa Mayor Debate

Creative Loafing will be hosting a debate for candidates running for Mayor of Tampa. Mitch Perry will be the moderator and the candidates appearing are Bob Buckhorn, Rose Ferlita, Dick Greco, Arthur Richardson, Tom Scott and Ed Turanchik. The first half of the debate will be Perry fielding the candidates questions. The second half will be questions from the audience.

You will have to reserve a seat in order to attend the debate. What is interesting is calls for seats are screened by Perry. On a certain level: it is understandable why Perry wouldn't want Tea Partiers yelling at the candidates and slamming on the doors of the Creative Loafing offices. My question is why hold the debate at Creative Loafing. Why not move the debate to the USF campus. Creative Loafing would have a bigger venue and security.

My fear is Perry is going to ask softball questions and fill the audience with influential Tampa residents. We shall see.

Time
Thursday, February 10 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Location CL Space
1911 N. 13th St. Ste. W200 (above Spaghetti Warehouse in Ybor Square)
Tampa, FL

Shelton "Blank Application" Quarles

Apparently, I wasn't the only one that was mystified about Shelton Quarles being appointed Chairman of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority board. Fellow candidate Ed Turanchik is stumped as to why Quarles would be selected.

"It's a complicated topic, and it takes a lot of effort," said former Hillsborough County commissioner and longtime rail advocate Ed Turanchik, who applied but was not selected. "For Shelton or anyone else like him, there's a huge amount of learning to do, and there's no staff to help him."

Quarles application was something of a joke. He left the selections about his experience and reasons for wanting the job blank. It's more disturbing that Quarles beat out an experienced New York state transit official.

Quarles explained his qualifications to the Tampa Tribune.

"The dumb jock theory definitely doesn't apply to me," he said.

That's the best he can do? How utterly unconvincing. Ofcourse, Quarles did something many other recent Charlie Crist appointees did, he donated to the Governor's last campaign.