A political committee supporting Mayor Ken Welch’s reelection released the first direct attack advertisement of St. Petersburg’s election season.
It signals a potentially potent line of attack against the candidate Welch sees as his main political rival — former Gov. Charlie Crist. But it’s a strategy that carries some risk.
In the nonpartisan race to lead a Democrat-leaning city, Welch is quickly reminding voters of Crist’s Republican roots and past socially conservative stated beliefs. But Welch could just as easily come under the same line of fire as a Republican-to-Democrat convert.
The text message blast Thursday evening included a 25-second audio clip of St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Charlie Crist “in his own words” as he was running for Florida governor in 2006. In it, Crist says he is “pro-life,” opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants and supports traditional marriage. “Floridians need a consistent, conservative governor,” Crist says.
“We never know which Charlie we’re going to get,” read the advertisement from St. Petersburg Progress. “And St. Pete doesn’t need another Charlie Crist campaign.”
Crist won that race for governor as a Republican. He ran as an independent in the 2010 U.S. Senate race, when he lost before switching his political party to Democrat in 2012. He has since run for and held office as a Democrat.
Welch, however, is also a former registered Republican who espoused conservative beliefs as recently as 2008. As a Pinellas County commissioner at the time, he supported a county ordinance to protect gays, lesbians and bisexuals from discrimination but was in favor of a “balance” that included exemptions for religious groups.
St. Petersburg Progress’ ad is the first negative message naming an opponent of the election. Crist said he had not seen the advertisement.
“It’s a nonpartisan race and he’s bringing up partisan issues because he’s desperate,” Crist said. “That’s pretty rich.”
Crist defended his switching of political parties, pointing to former President Ronald Reagan and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as making similar jumps.
“I think when people have experiences and gain wisdom and keep an open mind that they can see things in a different light,” he said. “If you feel your party isn’t representing what you feel in your soul, you want to be comfortable with a party that does.”
Welch declined to comment and referred to a campaign spokesperson.
“Charlie Crist’s record on reproductive rights and the LGBTQ+ community is something he’d rather voters forget,” said Adrienne Bogen, a spokesperson for the Welch campaign. “Frankly, if I were him, I’d want to change the subject too.”
Bogen said Crist wasn’t present when Welch raised the St. Pete Pride flag over City Hall.
“Charlie Crist was nowhere to be found and hasn’t been for years,” she said. “That’s because Charlie Crist has always done what’s best for Charlie Crist. St. Petersburg deserves a mayor who shows up and puts residents first.”
In 2021, Welch received endorsements from groups he once publicly opposed in letters to the editor written to the St. Petersburg Times. He called the National Organization for Women a “far political left” group in 1995. In regards to “homosexuality and abortion,” he wrote that he was part of the “so-called Christian Right” that interprets the Bible as being “clearly pro-family and pro-life.”
The Florida NOW PAC recently endorsed Welch’s opponent, Brandi Gabbard, for mayor. Karen Mullins, who runs the endorsement process through the Pinellas NOW group, said she reached out to all candidates but Gabbard was the only one who responded.
Mullins said her group would be open to going through the endorsement process with Welch.
“We’re aware of Ken’s stance prior to becoming a Democrat,” she said. “If he has asked, we’d go through the process as well.”
St. Petersburg Progress’ mailer is similar to a 2021 advertisement that linked Welch to President Donald Trump, a move that proved fatal for Darden Rice’s run for mayor. Welch was a delegate for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Rice came in third place in the 2021 primary election and failed to make the runoff. In a phone call to the Tampa Bay Times, she called it political suicide.
“I certainly look back on that mailer from my campaign and I will tell you, it was a big mistake, and one that I regret,” she said. “It wasn’t who I was as a person. I wanted to talk about issues. I didn’t want to go this route that consultants were pushing me to go. And it landed horribly.”
Rice said that since then, her campaign staff admitted it was a huge mistake.
“Anytime you go negative you gotta go and be careful,” she said.
As for her take on the Welch camp’s ad, she said the campaign may have polling that suggests it should attack around Crist’s identity politics.
“It’s not going after Crist on his record as much as who he was when he said those things in the robocall,” she said. “The whole purpose is to remind Democrats that Charlie may not be one of them.”
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