Kevin Batdorf, past president of the Shore Acres Civic Association, one of the largest neighborhood associations in St. Petersburg, filed paperwork March 16 to run for mayor.
Batdorf, 64, is now the sixth candidate in the race and the latest challenger of Mayor Ken Welch, who is seeking a second term. He served as his neighborhood association’s president for three years starting in 2023. He is a real estate broker.
Batdorf led the city’s lowest-lying neighborhood through two hurricanes in 2024. Residents there and in other flooded areas expressed frustration with the city’s debris pickup strategy and a faulty debris pickup tracker. Some residents in Shore Acres called their debris piles “Welch piles.”
At that time, Batdorf said Welch “has failed us.” All debris citywide was picked up by a deadline set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency so the city could be reimbursed.
Batdorf made his run official at City Hall around 11 a.m. with his wife, Kathy, and 14-year-old son, Lucas. He said he is running to strengthen roads, sewers and drainage systems and increase transparency and accountability.
“Everyone has an agenda except for me. I don’t have a hidden agenda,” said Batdorf, who was born in St. Petersburg and graduated from Gibbs High School. “My agenda is getting the city back on track and doing what’s right for residents.”
He said he doesn’t believe a referendum to accelerate $600 million in water and stormwater system upgrades by implementing a new property tax will work as Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing a vote to eliminate property taxes on owner-occupied homes. Batdorf said he would sell the aging downtown Municipal Services Center, move those operations to a more central location and use the proceeds for upgrades.
To curb crime, Batdorf wants to bring in private enterprise along with public partners to pay for wayward young people to get training in the trades and set them up with a job.
Batdorf enters a candidate field with City Council member Brandi Gabbard, former St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Chief Jim Large, former NAACP St. Petersburg branch president Maria Scruggs and perennial candidate Paul Congemi.
Former Florida governor and congressman Charlie Crist is expected to throw his hat in the ring for mayor. He has not filed paperwork, but a political committee supporting him has raised $1 million, it recently announced.
Though the mayor’s race is nonpartisan, Batdorf and Large are registered Republicans, as is Congemi. Welch, Gabbard and Scruggs are Democrats.
Batdorf describes himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal. He supports women’s rights and universal health care and doesn’t “care what people do in their own home.”
“If you were to look at a guy who’s truly in the center, that would be me,” he said.