It was almost exactly four years ago that Tampa became one of the focal points of the Tea Party rage against Obamacare. At the time, a town hall meeting held by Congresswoman Kathy Castor at the Children’s Board in Ybor City got out of control after conservatives in the room shouted down the Tampa-based Democrat and generally behaved rudely. (Some of those activists say otherwise, but I was there and won’t forget it.)
Fast forward to tomorrow night when Jim DeMint will bring his Heritage Action group to Tampa for a town hall meeting to denounce Obamacare. Democrats insist they won’t stand by, planning a news conference to rebut DeMint tomorrow afternoon, with some activists calling for a counter protest tomorrow evening.
This morning, Gov. Scott will bring up Obamacare at a scheduled cabinet meeting about the so-called navigators that will work on signing up uninsured Americans to the exchanges that will allow people to access health care beginning in October.
Do you know who Allie Braswell is? While talking to some Tampa Democrats last night, I realized many of them didn't. But for four days he was the state party's heralded challenger to Jeff Atwater for chief financial officer. That's until news broke that he has had three personal bankruptcies on his CV, dooming his chances to be a viable candidate.
And at a HART meeting yesterday in Tampa, the Hillsborough County transit agency's CFO unveiled two potential ways for the organization to move forward over the next decade. The bottom line is that this agency needs more funding to truly meet the transportation needs of this huge county.
