julie brown, john dingfelder, and the p.b.a.
According to the Tampa Tribune, the Police Benevolent Association - the labor union representing the good law enforcement officers with the Tampa Police Department - endorsed Julie Brown in her campaign against incumbent City Councilman John Dingfelder.
This should not be a surprise. The PBA has long opposed Dingfelder - he was the only member of the City Council to vote against a change to the Tampa Police and Fire Pension Fund. (It was mildly controversial because the change affected current employees and those in the DROP program — but not officers who were already retired.)
He voted against the union, and they started shopping for an opponent. Julie Brown is a good candidate - a former City Attorney, so she isn’t completely new to local government.
I have not heard of any candidate forums for District 4, but I expect that Brown will give Dingfelder quite the fight. She already has an impressive list of endorsements and supporters on her side.
She is also managing to hold her own in fundraising against Dingfelder — an important measure of broader support in the community. And her campaign consultants, Strategic Solutions, are among the best in the local industry.
Dingfelder has a tough fight on his hands.
(Cross posted at the State of Sunshine)
No tag for this post.
Loading ...
February 7th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
[...] at Sticks of Fire) Share This: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover [...]
February 7th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
NO GO with Julie Brown.
Bad money seeking control — check for yourself.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Anonymous is right. It would appear that Julie Brown’s vote is up for sale to the highest corporate bidder. Here is a link to an article which shows who supports Julie Brown.
John Dingfelder voted against expanding the Kuhn auto dealership because the people of the surrounding neighborhood feared it would hurt their quality of life.
Coincidently almost every employee of Kuhn donated the legal amount to Brown’s campaign. It appears Kuhn was able to get around campaign finance limits by having his employees donate instead of himself. Many of these people don’t even live in the city.
The last thing we need is one more politician in the pocket of Big Businesses against neighborhoods.
Check it out here: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/23/Hillsborough/Kuhn_workers_give_big.shtml
and
http://www.wmnf.org/news_stories/show/4048
February 7th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Dingfelder has done a great job and should be re-elected.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
we ran into Joe Citro, apparently the other candidate in district 4, leaving the Publix on Gandy this past weekend.
trying to build some name recognition for future races or what since Brown vs Dingfelder is story in thise one?
http://www.josephcitro.com/
February 7th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Look who has more big money from developers and the like: CHECK THIS OUT!!!
Dingfelder – 56 real estate, property management, hotel owners, heavy construction; 5 architects; 1 realtor
Brown – 46 developers/real estate
Brown doesn’t appear to be in anyone’s pocket. On the contrary, Ding Dong seems to have more developer related contributor–and Brown has more money!
DO NOT BELIEVE THESE DINGFELDER BLOGS.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Forgive me, I am not following. Brown has less unique developer/real estate contributors but more money. How is that significant?
February 8th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Anon 9:13 Did you proof read your own post?
February 8th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Anonymous 6:
I am not sure that having contributions from developers makes somebody a bad candidate.
I would be concerned however, if the donations came specifically from a corporation who had lost a bid to thwart the will of a community of homeowners to maintain their quality of life.
And I would be even more concerned if those contributions appeared to be an attempt to circumvent campaign finance regulations.
I would also be concerned with the credibility of someone who resorts to name calling and quotes facts without citing any sources.
And if you absolutely have to resort to name calling, couldn’t you come up with anything better than “Ding Dong”?
More on the “bundling scandal” here:
http://www.blurbex.com/2007/01/nothing_more_da.html
February 8th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
That is the point I made lightly at State of the Sunshine on Jim’s original post on this matter. Julie Brown is one person’s candidate. Kuhn auto is bad business, bad for Tampa and bad the way they go about things. Gamzu took it all the way for anonymous because I had read that Kuhn connection way back. No go on Julie Brown. She’s probably an ‘outsider’ not that it matters in some places but in this case she is not for the citizens of tampa. She’s a realtor, a developer’s angel and she also works with the community development agencies which are just the long arm of EMINENT DOMAIN as in you’ve over-stayed your welcome. Move on now.
Please read for yourself. John Dingfelder rightfully voted down the cop retirement deal. The truth of the matter is that every traffic ticket given out in Hillsborough County is encouraged by every insurance co. writing auto policies in Florida. Because for every traffic ticket written — there is a donation to the police retirement fund. This is revealed in some detail in Barbara Orban’s suit against the Sh*tty of Tampa. It’s appalling. Do some reading and you will see. Julie Brown is definitely not a good choice. If you don’t like Dingfelder, choose Citro.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
P.S. I don’t care how much money a person raises. I think that’s the stupidest reason to vote for someone (like in monopoly, a war-chest?) I also don’t vote for yard-signs. I think they should be outlawed.
February 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Julie Brown is a terrific candidate. Please do not question her based on her being a realtor (she is actually a real estate broker AND an attorney–very smart). That is actually a plus. She has a ton of knowledge about local issues. And she serves on Florida Bar committees (i.e., she is extremely ethical). People love her. You must meet her before you pass judgment.
February 8th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Bottom line: Dingfelder has very little regard for the rights of property owners in our community. He’s also a trial attorney, reaping the benefits of huge settlements which untimately cost us citizens more in the marketplace. My favorite description of a liberal such as him: “Someone who knows what’s good for you (better than you, yourself, knows!). And no, I’ve never had any personal contact with him - but I do spend time watching his rulings on public tv.
February 10th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Based on today’s newspaper articles (in both Trib and Times), Julie Brown is CLEARLY a better candidate for South Tampa than Dingfelder. He is pretty scary. We need to bring “common sense” to City Council!
February 20th, 2007 at 12:18 am
dear southtampanative…just read your post. So many errors I had to write ya. I know Councilman Dingfelder & he’s NOT a trial lawyer. He practises land use, environmental and civil cases DEFENDING people from plantiffs who look for huge settlements. Dingfelder use to be a public defender & worked as an assit. County Attny.
And IF you watch him on Tv its on the City’s Government access…NOT public access. And whil we are at it…both the Tampa Tribune, St. Pete Times and la Gaceta newspapers ENDORSED DINGFELDER this past weeknd…and all of them said he “balances property rights” and “can be counted on to protect neighborhoods without ignoring land owners rights.” So how ’bout getting your facts straight! Dingfelder is the only choice for S. Tpa.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:35 am
OH MY GOD does someone up there actually expect anyone to believe that because someone works on Florida Bar committees they are ETHICAL?? See my blog for future updates on this. Actually, one of the features of the Florida Bar is to trump up false charges against GOOD lawyers so the sleeze can be the only ones available to run the legal aspect. With this regime, all the judges have been selected by Bush and he is firing state attorneys willy nilly. Soon we’ll have no balance in the Florida Supreme Court, just like the US Supreme Court. Being involved in the Florida Bar makes Julie Brown part of this. And, this does not include all attorneys. Despite huge efforts, there are still some ethical attorneys in FL. Julie B. may be one but she seems more like she is on the side of the big guy. And that’s on her own web site.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:09 pm
P.S. Dingfelder got FIRED from both jobs.
February 25th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Blogs are amazing… people like Paul Frank can just write BS hoping that it will stick?
hopefully voters are smarter then Mr Frank.
To the best of my knowledge Dingfelder works very hard as our City Councilman. People need to check out his 18 years of public service in this community … and was NEVER fired from any jobs. Dingfelder was born here, has the experience on City Council and is the best choice for S. Tpa (thats what the tribune & St. Pete Times said when they endorsed Dingfelder). Smart voters will vote for Dingfelder.
February 26th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Lulu=Mrs. Dingfelder.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:32 am
Julie Brown has many too many skeletons in her closet…
From: Sticks of Fire
To: concerned citizen | IP: 71.100.219.93
The rest of your comment has been moderated. However, should you have proof of the allegations, we’d love to hear about it. Please feel free to use a valid email address, though.
March 5th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I think Frank is right….Lulu must be Dingfelder’s wife! Listen, Dingfelder is the guy who invited an athiest to give the opening invocation for the city council one day……if that’s not the actions of a freaking off-the-scale radical liberal, I don’t know what is!!! Anybody but Dingfelder for city council would be an improvement.