{"id":61922,"date":"2025-11-26T20:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61922\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T20:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:00:12","slug":"charlie-crist-closer-to-st-pete-mayoral-bid-launches-political-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61922\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Crist closer to St. Pete mayoral bid, launches political committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist is raising funds ahead of a potential bid for St. Petersburg Mayor. A political committee, St. Pete Shines<\/a>, was established earlier this month, the Tampa Bay Times first reported Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paperwork was filed Nov. 7 and an acknowledgement letter sent Nov. 12 officially establishing the committee, which has not yet reported fundraising totals.<\/p>\n

Michelle Todd Schorsch is the registered chairperson. Todd Schorsch previously worked as a special assistant to Crist when he was Florida Governor as a Republican. Crist is now a Democrat. Todd Schorsch is married to Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch.<\/p>\n

Schorsch addressed concerns about any perceived conflict of interest in coverage of the 2026 Mayor\u2019s race, given his wife\u2019s role with the political committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I absolutely retain my right to comment on the state of St. Pete politics, as I have for two decades, I have specifically hired a new reporter to provide independent coverage of the race, offering a fresh perspective and ensuring that Florida Politics\u2019 coverage of the race is fair, accurate and extensive,\u201d Schorsch said.<\/p>\n

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

The recent hire, Jesse Mendoza, came to Florida Politics earlier this month from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune where he covered Manatee County government. Mendoza will be covering the St. Pete Mayor\u2019s race when it kicks into gear. It\u2019s worth noting that neither incumbent Mayor Ken Welch nor Crist have officially filed for the race.<\/p>\n

Crist told the Tampa Bay Times<\/a> in October that he was mulling a bid, but has not made an official announcement.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been reported that Schorsch worked on Crist\u2019s 2010 U.S Senate race, which is not accurate. By 2010, Schorsch had established SaintPetersBlog, the precursor to what is now Florida Politics, and had not worked for Crist since 2008, though he acknowledges they remain close friends.<\/p>\n

While fundraising data is not yet publicly available because the St. Pete Shines committee was just formed this month, Todd Schorsch said the reception so far has been good.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Pete Shines was created to build financial support for candidates committed to a brighter future for St Petersburg. I\u2019m pleased with the response we\u2019ve received thus far. We\u2019ll have more to say in the coming weeks,\u201d she told Florida Politics in a texted statement.<\/p>\n

Crist told the Times he is \u201coverwhelmed and humbled by the response\u201d so far, and that it \u201cis certainly helping me make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first financial report for St. Pete Shines is due Jan. 12 and will outline fundraising and expenditures. Welch\u2019s political committee, The Pelican Political Action Committee<\/a>, has raised nearly $235,000 as of Sept. 30, financial reports show.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg City Council member Brandi Gabbard has also announced she plans to run for Mayor, but has also not yet filed for the race. Only one candidate has actually filed: former St. Pete NAACP leader\u00a0Maria\u00a0Scruggs, who has run unsuccessfully several times for public office.<\/p>\n

If Crist runs, it would be his\u00a0eighth bid for public office<\/a>\u00a0in about two decades, including failed bids for U.S. Senate in 2010 and Governor in 2022. He lost the latter race to incumbent Republican\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0by nearly 20 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Crist\u2019s political career dates back to the early \u201990s, when he served in the Florida Senate as a Republican from 1993 until 1999. He left his seat early to run unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate. He served two years as Florida Education Commissioner, then an elected post, and as Florida Attorney General from 2003 until he was elected Governor in late 2006.<\/p>\n

Crist later lost another U.S. Senate bid in 2010, when he ran as an independent. He ran again for Governor in 2014, as a Democrat, losing to Republican\u00a0Rick Scott. Crist won election to Florida\u2019s 13th Congressional District in 2016, defeating then-Republican incumbent\u00a0David Jolly, who is now running for Florida Governor as a Democrat.<\/p>\n

Amid unfavorable redistricting, Crist\u00a0resigned his seat in Congress<\/a>\u00a0to run again for Governor,\u00a0losing in 2022 to DeSantis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Gabbard already committing to a bid for Mayor, and Crist mulling one, it\u2019s clear Welch could face a challenge unlike one he has faced in recent memory. His most recent election, against Republican\u00a0Robert Blackmon\u00a0for Mayor four years ago, was a blowout.\u00a0Welch won by more than 20 percentage points<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a Pinellas County Commissioner, Welch didn\u2019t face opposition at all in 2008 or 2016. In 2012, when he did have a challenger, it was Scruggs, whom he trounced by 29 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist is raising funds ahead of a potential bid for St. Petersburg Mayor. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3300,3347,2346,3175,37377,37245,202,204,3303,203,37378,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-61922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-brandi-gabbard","9":"tag-charlie-crist","10":"tag-ken-welch","11":"tag-maria-scruggs","12":"tag-michelle-todd-schorsch","13":"tag-peter-schorsch","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-mayors-race","17":"tag-st-pete-news","18":"tag-st-pete-shines","19":"tag-st-petersburg","20":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","21":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61922","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=61922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}