Friday, March 9, 2012

The Rift Between Rick Baker and Bill Foster

We recently saw this posting on the Tampa Bay Times about former Mayor Rick Baker endorsing Everett Rice for Pinellas County Sheriff, while current Mayor Bill Foster has endorsed Bob Gualtieri, and this got us to thinking about all of the little disagreements and rumors of a rift between the two mayors that we decided to put them all together into a single posting to show that there are a lot of differences between the two, and that there is not a solid connection between the two, leading us to believe there really may be a chance of Baker running for Mayor against Foster in 2013.

Exhibit A: During Mayor Foster's campaign in an interview he said that Police Chief Harmon needed a new boss to be successful as Police Chief, his boss at the time was Mayor Rick Baker

Exhibit B: Mayor Baker did not endorse candidate Bill Foster until after the primary, when Foster came out on top with the most votes, showing that it may have been as much a strategic move as anything else

Exhibit C: Mayor Baker REALLY doesn't like Kathleen Ford, meaning an endorsement of Foster would be more a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"

Exhibit D: After Bill Foster won the election, Mayor Rick Baker had Mayor-elect Foster's transition office set up in a roped-off area in the Municipal Services building, instead of City Hall, even though there was room available.

Exhibit E: Foster and Baker have different views on many subjects, from police chases, support for LGBT issues, red light cameras, extending bar open times and banning panhandlers to dealing with conflicts, and even on presenting projects to City Council, where Baker always had a plan to present to Council, Foster often offers no opinion.

Exhibit F: Rick Baker really liked Goliath Davis, meeting with him often and dedicating several pages in his book to Davis and his accomplishments. While Bill Foster met with Davis very rarely, didn't connect with him, and gathered up what little courage he had to clumsily fire Davis on Davis' 60th birthday over a year after taking office.

Exhibit G: According to SaintPetersBlog, "There is talk that Baker has grown disillusioned with his successor"

Exhibit H: Also according to SaintPetersBlog, "Rick Baker is also grateful for Foster because without him, the city would never have realized how good it had it under Baker's tenure.", we must agree with this one strongly, it's not likely that Foster is ever going to win Mayor-of-the-year like Baker did during his tenure as Mayor of St. Petersburg.

Exhibit I: Baker and Foster often endorse different candidates for the same races, from the recent Pinellas Sheriff example to the Republican presidential primary, they often find themselves on different sides of these same-party races

Given all of this evidence, it's pretty clear that Baker and Foster are not "best buds", and that Baker's support of Foster is more an alliance of convenience than it is one of loyalty.

So what does this all mean? It means that there is a very real possibility that former-Mayor Rick Baker wouldn't have a problem running against Bill Foster, and he may just run for Mayor of St. Petersburg again. He was Mayor for 9 years, and the city charter only has a restriction of two consecutive terms as Mayor, not a total of two terms as Mayor, so there is nothing legally stopping him from running. Also, his $225,000 job at USF may be in trouble due to the deep budget cuts handed down from Tallahassee this month(21% for USF Tampa), so he may be looking for a job again soon, and the Mayor's position might look even more appealing to him at that point.

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