Responses to the final question of a spicy candidate forum Friday morning encapsulated the tenor of the St. Petersburg mayor’s race: What do you admire most about your opponent?
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, first up to answer, was quick: Mayor Ken Welch’s kindness.
“I think he’s a decent man. I endorsed him. I voted for him. I campaigned for him. And sadly I’ve been disappointed,” Crist said. “I believe that we need better leadership.”
Welch took a pause. He said it was hard to say.
“If anything, it’s his passion to be in public office,” Welch said after a moment, getting at Crist’s political career as a lawmaker, Florida Attorney General, governor and congressman.
The incumbent mayor came in hot at the forum hosted by the Tampa Bay Breakfast Club radio show and held at Culture Creative. Friday morning, former Mayor Rick Kriseman, who supported Welch’s race to succeed him five years ago, joined all past living mayors to endorse Crist.
In his introduction, Welch lamented that Friday’s forum may be the only opportunity for voters to hear both candidates before absentee ballots arrive in mailboxes. Crist turned down a debate this month on Fox13. Bay News 9 is holding a televised debate between the two Oct. 13.
Welch, who trailed 14 percentage points behind Crist in the Aug. primary on his way to a second-place finish, has said that his path to reelection lies in debating policy and correcting a record he says is maligned by Crist. He has said Crist does not have concrete plans and wasn’t here for the city’s toughest times during 2024’s hurricanes.
Throughout the debate, Crist answered most questions looking down and reading from a binder. The Tampa Bay Breakfast Club wrote on Facebook that questions were shared with candidates ahead of time.
“I like to do my homework,” Crist said after the forum, about reading from a binder. “I think St. Pete needs a mayor who’s going to be prepared, and that’s me.”
Welch called Crist out by name multiple times and accused him of “telling falsehoods.”
Given the opportunity to address that accusation, Crist said he hadn’t made any.
Welch took particular issue with Crist’s assertion that residents can’t get meetings with the mayor. Welch wanted names and examples.
“I’m the most accessible mayor that there’s ever been,” Welch said.
Crist, who vowed to set up meetings on a monthly basis to meet with residents, declined.
“I talk to people every day that tell me they can’t get a meeting with the mayor,” Crist said. Audience members, some of whom are on Crist’s campaign staff, shouted out, “It’s true.”
“He didn’t take the bait,” Crist supporter Mendee Ligon said after the forum. “I thought that was taking the high road. The people who said it, know it.”
In response to a question about prioritizing water and sewer systems before development, Crist said he commits on day one to get those repairs done in a timely fashion.
“Governor, it’s almost like you haven’t been here to see what’s going on,” Welch said, plugging a referendum voters will weigh on in November to create an additional property tax to accelerate long overdue upgrades. Welch has repeatedly noted that Crist returned to St. Petersburg just in time to qualify to run for mayor after living in Minnesota following his failed 2022 run for governor.
In the audience, pastor Meiko Seymour said he thought Welch brought substance while Crist was still heavy on platitudes and not plans. Seymour said both candidates could do more to focus on the issues and not “emotions and drama,” he said.
Welch said in the forum he struggled to find something nice to say about his opponent because Crist hasn’t condemned one of his campaigners, political operative Peter Schorsch, for posting a rumor online that Welch had an affair with his deputy mayor. Crist has said he had nothing to do with that.
Tampa Bay Breakfast Club host and former City Council member Brother John Muhammad, who did not moderate the forum, said that Welch might’ve made some points about Crist being absent and not informed. He said, as Welch pointed out, Crist offered plans for initiatives already in place, such as lining up a debris contractor ahead of hurricanes and workforce training for returning citizens after incarceration.
Muhammad also pointed out Crist’s promise if elected to renegotiate with the Tampa Bay Rays after Tampa and Hillsborough County already approved agreements to build a stadium there.
“To just kind of see the disconnect between like what’s actually happening and then what you’re proposing,” Muhammad said.
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