redner’s liability
JoelJoe Redner won a chance at a runoff against incumbent Gwen Miller. For the first time in his many attempts at reaching public office, Redner seems to stand a decent chance of winning.
Common sense wins over prudishness, right?
For one, consider the competition - Miller has accomplished the seemingly redundant challenge of being an unimpressive city council member. That’s hardly an attractive trait for the few who care enough to vote.
So Redner would seem the perfect antidote to nothing. He’s worked tirelessly - though up to this point fruitlessly - for years to affect change in the city. He’s more than happy to show you what’s in his pockets, namely a lack of developers. He talks about the need for mass transit and controlled development - he even sounds halfway intelligent when talking about it.
But ideas do not a complete candidate make. Public office will always require the ability to find compromise with others who disagree with you; that ability requires you not incite others to lunge chairs at you, among other things.
Even if Redner did not provoke that type of action from other council members or the city’s population, his controversial business ventures could very well be the context for each and every issue he brings to the table.
Don’t for a minute think that a Redner win would be a mandate to ignore the Mons - a Redner win would more likely be a sum of Miller’s blank slate plus low turnout. One need only look at very recent news in Tampa and surrounding areas to know that this area is not yet ready to embrace anything like a progressive outlook.
What supporters of Redner’s ideas need to consider is that Redner could potentially hurt his and their cause rather than move it forward.
It may sound unfair and disheartening that Redner’s controversial but legal dealings could keep him from being an effective council member, but that may not even be the point. The bigger obstacle for Redner success may be that he’s not a good candidate.
(Disclosure: I make no judgment on whether Redner is at least a better candidate than Miller because that’s not my thing, but also because as a Temple Terrace resident, my opinion is electorally inconsequential. But because a majority of my non-sleeping hours are spent in Tampa limits, I feel I have a perfectly good reason to care. However sad the choices may be, I suggest Tampa residents care all the more and pick someone.)
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March 19th, 2007 at 9:34 am
i hear your fears about redner. however, his businesses are not likely to influence his public policy stances because mainly redner has all the money he could ever need. money isnt what motivates him. he wants respect and the chance to have some say in how tampa is run. his potential conflicts of interest are no worse than most others in office who run businesses or have business dealings.
he sometimes makes people throw chairs at him because it’s exasperating for some people to encounter free speech and an assertion of constitutional rights. many people really have no idea how those things work, even though they consider themselves good citizens. how well will he work together with other councilors? i dont know, but i dont really expect him to gather many majorties around him. he will be a useful thought provoker, mainly.