Maria Scruggs, defeated last week, is endorsing Charlie Crist for Mayor

After failing to make the runoff last week, former St. Petersburg Mayoral candidate Maria Scruggs is endorsing Charlie Crist for Mayor.

Crist finished last week’s Primary Election in first place, with 35% of the vote. Incumbent Mayor Ken Welch finished second, with less than 21% of the vote. The two will face off head-to-head in the Nov. 3 General Election.

Scruggs is the second defeated candidate to endorse Crist, after businessman Kevin Batdorf offered his support to Crist the day after the election. Jim Large, the former city fire chief who finished third, has said he’s not planning to endrose a candidate. City Council member and fourth place finisher Brandi Gabbard has not said whether she’ll endorse a candidate in the race.

“I did not offer this endorsement lightly, and I did not offer it without thoroughly discussing the issues I fought for throughout my campaign,” Scruggs said. “Charlie Crist and I did not agree on everything during the course of the campaign, but we did agree on some key policy areas that matter to me: opportunity hubs in our recreation centers, a serious conversation about what working people earn, and investment that reaches the neighborhoods that have waited longest for it. I look forward to working with Charlie to make this a reality for our city.”

Crist responded to Scruggs’ endorsement with an anecdote.

“Maria Scruggs asked me a question during this campaign that I have not stopped thinking about,” said Crist. “When we talk about affordable housing in St. Petersburg, who are we actually talking about? Affordable for whom? That question is the difference between a policy that sounds good in a press release and a policy that helps the family being priced out of the neighborhood they grew up in. She asked it, and I intend to keep answering it.”

“Maria has spent forty years serving this city, and she did not hand me this endorsement,” Crist added. “She made me earn it. That is exactly the kind of accountability I want from the people I serve.”

Crist is the far-and-away frontrunner in the race. Polls ahead of the Primary Election showed him with a commanding lead among the entire field of six candidates, and a heavy favorite in a General Election matchup against Welch.

A St. Pete Polls survey taken in late July found Crist leading Welch decisively, at 45% to 30%, with 25% still undecided under that scenario. Endorsements from defeated candidates could help to boost Crist’s share of votes.

Crist also has a commanding cash-on-hand advantage over Welch. As of Aug. 13, Crist had more than $366,000 still on hand between his two funding sources. Welch, by comparison, had less than $56,000.

What’s more, Welch may have a vote-share problem. While he carried precincts that were majority minority, mostly south of Central Avenue, Crist’s dominance was on full display. A Tampa Bay Times analysis found Welch fared no better than third place in the Primary Election in 70% of the city’s precincts, while Crist fared no worse than second place in any of the city’s 84 precincts.

Scruggs’ endorsement follows others from former St. Pete Mayors Bill Foster and Bob Ulrich since election results were counted last week. With former Mayor Rick Baker, three of four living former St. Pete Mayors have now backed Crist.