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Dem. Lisa Montelione no longer has to worry about a primary challenge and is now set to face off against Rep. incumbent Shawn Harrison in the Florida House District 63 race.

Although it wasn’t much of a surprise, Mike Reedy, who was Montelione’s only Democrat primary challenger, dropped out of the Florida House District 63 race on June 24. That leaves just Montelione, who resigned her Tampa City Council seat last month, against Harrison, the Republican incumbent, on Nov. 8.

Reedy informed his followers that he was bowing out, and endorsed Montelione in the process.

“I wanted to personally let you know that today I have decided to end my campaign for the Florida House,’’ Reedy wrote to supporters via his Facebook page. “When I started this campaign, it was because I felt District 63 deserved an advocate in Tallahassee — someone who would fight for innovative job creation, smart budgeting and fair taxes; lead initiatives to make college more affordable, and see to it that working and middle-class families like my own are heard in Tallahassee.”

Reedy was far behind in fund raising for his race, having only brought in roughly $20,000, while Montelione raised $6,360 last month ($1,818.40 of that was from the Florida Democratic Party), to bring her total to nearly $65,000 cash on hand.

Harrison, meanwhile, has raised $164,755, including $135,000 cash on hand. He raised $9,400 last month, completing the best three-month period of fund raising he has enjoyed. Combined with April and May’s numbers, Harrison raised a little more than $51,000 over the past three months.

The Ever-Expanding Field

New Tampa emergency room physician and long-time Hunter’s Green resident Jim Davison, M.D., is the latest entry in the special election to fill the remaining two years of Montelione’s District 7 seat on the Tampa City Council. Dr. Davison turned in his Statement of Candidate form on June 30, two days after Arbor Greene’s Avis Harrison turned in hers.

That brings the total to six candidates trying to capture the non-partisan seat, a field that also includes Cory Lake Isles (CLI) resident Dr. Cyril Spiro, who works in health care data analytics and chairs the CLI Community Development District (CDD) Board; Tampa Palms resident and lawyer Luis Viera; Tampa Palms resident and La Gaceta assistant editor Gene Siudut; and retired police officer and community activist Orlando Gudes, who resides in the Copeland Park area between Busch Blvd. and Fowler Ave.

Like most of the other candidates, Dr. Davison, 61, says transportation will be one of his key issues, and he doesn’t lack for experience in that department.

He was a Tampa City Council appointee to the “Committee of 99,” a transportation panel formed in 1999 by then-Hillsborough County administrator Dan Kleman to find solutions to transportation problems throughout the county. Dr. Davison also was  the co-founder and first chairman of the New Tampa Transportation Task Force.

He has been active in most of the transportation issues affecting New Tampa, where he and his wife Diane and their four children have lived for 23 years, working for advisory boards and task forces. He supported the recent Tampa Bay Express (TBX) vote, which passed, and worked against GO Hillsborough, which failed.

Dr. Davison has twice unsuccessfully run for county commission, in 2002 and 2004. In 2002, he came in third (with 25 percent of the vote) in the GOP primary for the District 2 Hillsborough County Commission seat won by Ken Hagan, and in 2004, Davison lost to Mark Sharpe in the countywide District 7 GOP primary.

Avis Harrison officially announced her candidacy via a media release July 8. A Pensacola native, Harrison has been a member of the New Tampa Junior Women’s Club and serves as a home school evaluator. She also is the photo chairperson and a member of the Parent Teacher Association at Corbett Preparatory School in Tampa.

Recently widowed, Harrison has three children ages 19, 26 and 31, and is currently raising her 6-year-old granddaughter.

Other Fund-Raising Results

Viera opened his campaign with a huge fund-raising haul, taking in a little over $33,000 (of which $3,000 were in-kind donations) in

Luis Viera had a big fundraising haul in June.

June. Viera says that he has recently garnered the support of former State Senator James Hargrett and former Tampa City Council member Rudy Fernandez.

Spiro raised $9,094 in June, with $4,600 of that total coming in the form of three donations he made to his campaign. Spiro now has $17,526 cash on hand after two months of fund raising.

Gudes raised $7,806 in June, followed by Siudut with $6,665 and Harrison with $2,700, $1,000 of which was in the form of personal loan to her campaign.

Caetano On The Ballot For School Board Again

Former Tampa City Council member and Bostonian Hair Salon owner Joseph Caetano has qualified to be on the Nov. 8 ballot as one of eight candidates vying for the countywide District 7 seat on the Hillsborough County School Board being vacated by Carol Kurdell.

This is the second attempt (the first was in 1996) at a School Board run by the long-time New Tampa resident, who last served in the Dist. 7 City Council in 2011. — GN

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