{"id":429605,"date":"2026-10-16T16:12:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429605\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:12:21","slug":"even-black-santa-has-abandoned-ken-welch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429605\/","title":{"rendered":"Even Black Santa has abandoned Ken Welch"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t me.<\/p>\n

In 2013, a man in a chicken suit kept turning up at mayoral debates Kathleen Ford skipped, holding a sign that read \u201cToo chicken to debate Foster & Kriseman.\u201d I told the Tampa Bay Times I was absolutely not behind the chicken<\/a>. I confessed on Primary morning, in the suit. The Times headline was \u201cSchorsch lied about role in chicken suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

A man in an inflatable Santa suit worked a St. Petersburg intersection this week. I didn\u2019t rent the suit or hire the guy in it. I found out when Pinellas County Commissioner Rene Flowers posted the clip.<\/p>\n

Flowers, a Ken Welch supporter, narrated it: \u201cThank you, Santa, for ringing the bell for the re-election of Ken Welch as the Mayor of the city of St. Petersburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the note underneath: \u201cActually you guys, he was out there ringing a bell for Ken\u2019s opponent. However, since he was by Mayor Welch\u2019s signs more often than not, I took advantage of a public photo opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Santa was there for Charlie Crist. He just happened to be standing near a Welch sign, so a County Commissioner filmed him anyway and claimed him for the Mayor. The Welch campaign is borrowing Santa.<\/p>\n

The latest St. Pete Polls survey<\/a> has Crist at 53% and Welch at 32%, the second poll since the Primary to show a lead north of 20 points. Welch\u2019s fundraising has all but dried up<\/a>: $9,650 in the last reporting period, about $41,000 left, against Crist\u2019s nearly $411,000. Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

Welch is the city\u2019s first Black Mayor. If anyone was going to stick with him to the end, it was Black Santa.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Ed. note: Michelle Todd Schorsch is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee backing Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ed. note: This column was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t me. In 2013, a man in a chicken suit kept turning up at mayoral debates Kathleen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[11591,3347,2346,37245,596,3517,202,204,203,7382,199,201,15767,200],"class_list":["post-429605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-2026-election","tag-charlie-crist","tag-ken-welch","tag-peter-schorsch","tag-pinellas-county","tag-rene-flowers","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-pete-polls","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-mayor","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429605","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=429605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}