ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Candidates for St. Petersburg mayor took part in their latest debate Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Former governor and congressman Charlie Crist was the only one of the six people running for the seat who didn\u2019t attend, but his name came up several times – including in reference to a social media post current Mayor Ken Welch has called on him to condemn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been five days since one of your lieutenants, who\u2019s married to your campaign manager, made a despicable lie about my conduct, the conduct of a city employee, and you\u2019ve said nothing,\u201d Welch said as part of his response to a question about what he\u2019d say to Crist if he were there.<\/p>\n
Welch posted a video to Instagram earlier this week saying Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch posted to social media that the mayor had an affair with a city employee. In the video, Welch called it \u201ca disgusting and flat-out lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife saw that post. My youngest daughter saw that post. Put yourself in my shoes and think how that would impact your own family,\u201d Welch said in the video.<\/p>\n
At the debate held by Suncoast Tiger Bay, a member of the group pointed out Crist\u2019s absence and asked what each candidate would tell him. Welch was the first to approach the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way that someone runs their campaign is the way they will run the mayor\u2019s office. We\u2019ve seen it in Washington. We\u2019ve seen it in Tallahassee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, mayor, we may not agree on a lot, but we certainly agree on this,\u201d said St. Petersburg Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard, the second candidate who rose to answer the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a lot that has been said. There has been a lot of mudslinging. There has been a lot of dragging our community through the mud,\u201d Gabbard said.<\/p>\n
Gabbard raised concerns about comments she said Crist has made about the city\u2019s and and its workers\u2019 response to recent hurricanes.<\/p>\n
Candidate Maria Scruggs pointed to Crist\u2019s absence from the debate and questioned whether he would show up for voters after the primary.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the mudslinging that is going on that is being implemented by Gov. Crist\u2019s campaign is evident of what has worked in the past,\u201d Scruggs said.<\/p>\n
Crist, reached by phone, said he had no comment on the situation involving Welch and Schorsch, saying it was not an issue of his.<\/p>\n
Asked separately about candidates\u2019 comments on mudslinging, Crist said, \u201cIt sounds like they\u2019re in a desperate situation. All I\u2019m doing is telling the truth about their record. I\u2019m going to keep telling the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Candidates Kevin Batdorf and Jim Large also commented on the campaign\u2019s tone as part of their responses to the question about Crist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I see some of the things that are going on in this campaign, it makes me sick to my stomach,\u201d Batdorf said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the mayor talked about, the low blow in this campaign, I personally know how it affects your family when you\u2019ve been accused falsely about accusations of something that you\u2019re not,\u201d Large said.<\/p>\n
Schorsch said in a statement that he is not a politician and is not on the ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a news publisher. And Ken Welch is attempting to intimidate a media figure who has called out the Mayor\u2019s lack of leadership in response to the devastating hurricanes that destroyed my neighborhood,\u201d Schorsch said. \u201cI have questioned his leadership on many other issues. And now he is angry and desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crist\u2019s campaign said he did not attend the debate because of affordability concerns. The campaign said tickets to attend ranged from $25 to $75, and that only Suncoast Tiger Bay members could ask questions. The campaign said membership costs $200.<\/p>\n
Crist held a free tele-town hall instead. His campaign said 7,500 people dialed in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Candidates for St. Petersburg mayor took part in their latest debate Tuesday. Former governor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,770,2287,115,596,2718,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-356028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-sarah-blazonis","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}