Rep. Shawn Harrison expands fundraising lead with big December

 

Harrisonfund2In what is expected to be a hotly-contested race for the Florida House District 63 seat currently held by Republican Shawn Harrison, the incumbent has jumped out to a sizable lead – at least in terms of raising funds.

According to fund-raising totals reported on Jan. 11, Harrison pulled in $31,700 from donors in December, pushing him to just above $100,000 for the 2016 race. After the Dec. figures were released, Harrison said (in an email to his supporters), “Thank you all for your help in my December fund-raising surge, now it’s time for the 2016 session!”

And, those figures surely received a boost from Harrison’s last pre-legislative session fund raiser on Jan. 7 at The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve assisted living facility in New Tampa (see story on pg. 20). He said roughly 70 people attended that event.

“There were a lot of folks from New Tampa there,’’ Harrison said. “I’ve been in elected office for many years and built up quite a good network of friends and co-workers who would like to see that service continue.”

District 63 includes much of Northern Hillsborough County, including New Tampa and the University of South Florida. Harrison will be opposed by whichever Democrat emerges from the looming August 30 Primary Election battle between current District 7 Tampa City Council member Lisa Montelione and Mike Reedy, a state organizer for Equality Florida, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)-advocacy group.

Harrison won the Dist. 63 seat in 2014, defeating Democrat Mark Danish, who had beaten Harrison for the same seat in 2012.

While December isn’t considered a great month for political fund raising, because of the holidays, it is an important one for House members like Harrison, who are prohibited from raising money during the state legislative session, which convened again on Jan. 12 and runs through Mar 11.

“It’s obviously a pretty big number, $30,000 in one month, and it was a quite a successful month for fund raising,’’ Harrison told the Neighborhood News. “It was a nice little push before session to get some money into the account.”

Harrison, who will be pushing a number of important items related to the University of South Florida during the session and who has already pushed a bill forward to move the Second District Court of Appeals from Lakeland to Tampa, said he was just as pleased to break the six-figure mark for his campaign, a personal goal of his.

Montelione raised $5,020 in December. She said she is not surprised by Harrison’s fund-raising numbers nor the timing. “If you look at them, I think there’s (45) contributions, mostly all $1,000, which is the maximum and mostly from companies that will want something from him this upcoming season.”

Of Harrison’s 45 December contributions, 25 were for the maximum $1,000 allowed.

Montelione was pleased with the amount she raised. “I think that’s pretty decent,’’ she said.

Since entering the race in November, Montelione has raised $14,313.

“Considering I only got in the race a few months ago, I feel fabulous about where I am,’’ she said. “That’s in only about three weeks of fund raising.”

Reedy had his slowest fund-raising month since filing on Jan. 26, 2015, to challenge Harrison. In December, Reedy raised $130.64 to bring his campaign total to $16,478.32.

Reedy has picked up some key endorsements since entering the race, however, including one from former Rep. Danish himself.

 

Local Attorney Looking Into District 7 City Council Run

luis_viera
Luis Viera

Luis Viera lives in New Tampa and his son attends school here. Now, the Hunter’s Green resident and Tampa attorney says he may be interested in representing New Tampa on the Tampa City Council.

Viera told the Neighborhood News that he is exploring whether or not to challenge for the District 7 seat currently held by Lisa Montelione.

Since Montelione has filed to challenge Shawn Harrison in the House District 63 race (see pg. 8), state law requires that she resign and vacate her council seat by Election Day (November 8, 2016). Tampa will hold a special election to replace her.

In the meantime, Viera is on a fact-finding mission to decide whether or not to pursue a job that he admits intrigues him.

“Its a really unique seat,’’ says Viera, an attorney with Ogden & Sullivan, P.A., a civil trial practice firm in Tampa. “It’s the only seat for the City of Tampa that represents North (and New) Tampa. I’m lifelong from this area. I grew up in Temple Terrace, right next door, and have lived in New Tampa for the last 10 years or so. My son goes to school at Lawton Chiles Elementary. I’m a stakeholder in this area.”

Viera has no timetable for declaring his candidacy for the city’s nonpartisan elections, and is hoping to line up bipartisan support before doing so, even though he can’t run as a Republican or Democrat.

Having lived in New Tampa during the seemingly endless construction work on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., Viera says one of the main issues he would tackle would be transportation.

“I’m not saying that by getting on Council and making efforts its going to be a panacea, a heal all. It’s not,’’ Viera admits. “But, you can certainly make targeted (transportation) investments that I think will make things better.”

Some other issues mentioned by Viera include strengthening the link between North and New Tampa, fighting for more assistance for the city’s police and fire departments and ensuring that New Tampa gets its fair share of the city’s tax pie.

Viera helped found and is the President of the Lawyers Autism Awareness Foundation, which has raised roughly $40,000 for children with autism and other developmental disabilities, and does an annual “Sensory Friendly Santa” event for children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

He has served on the Board of Tampa Bay Best Buddies (2011-15), is presently the chair of the City of Tampa’s Civil Service Board (which hears the appeals of city workers who have been terminated or disciplined and wish to appeal). He also is the incoming president of the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association.

“I’ve always been involved in civic issues and always had an interest in politics,’’ Viera said. “(Running for City Council) would be an extension of that.”

 

Irish 31 to Open at Wiregrass Mall!

A Neighborhood News Exclusive By Gary Nager
irish31

Former USF football star Jay Mize, who already has four successful Irish 31 restaurants (in Hyde Park Village, Westshore, Westchase & at the Amalie Arena), says he hopes to open his fifth & sixth locations by the end of 2016.One of those new locales is on Clearwater Beach & the other is in The Shops st Wiregrass mall, in a shared building that just began site work next to Panera Bread.

Mize says the Irish 31 at Wiregrass will be 2,800 SF & will feature the same great chef-inspired (I call it ‘Irish-plus-gourmet’) cuisine as the other Irish 31 locations.

“It’s sort of a race to see which of our new stores opens first,” Mize says. “But we hope both will be open by the end of 2016.”

Mize noted that he couldn’t disclose the business that would share the building at our press time, but, “we know it’ll be good for us because we’re compatible with everyone.”

Visit Irish31.com for more details.

Harrison’s Contest Winner Helps Pitch New E-Cig Law

Christian at House copyBy Gary Nager

Congratulations to Tampa Palms resident and Liberty Middle School sixth grader Christian Breslin, who sparked the idea for the bill Rep. Shawn Harrison selected as his favorite in his recent “That Should Be A Law” contest.

Rep. Harrison says he was proud to present House Bill 1143 on Jan. 6, a proposal that will regulate the use of e-cigarettes and “vaping” devices under the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act. Thanks in part to Christian’s presentation before the legislative committee (photos), the bill passed its first committee by an 11-2 vote.

“The best part is that this idea came to me from a young constituent in my District as a result of my contest,’’ Harrison said. “And, it’s actually good public policy because there currently is no regulation (in Florida or the U.S.) about what chemicals can go in these things.”

Harrison also noted that many of the proposed bills he considered for the contest were about smoking, “but Christian’s was the most innovative. Until they (e-cigs) are regulated by the Federal government, I think it’s best to err on the side of caution and regulate their use (in Florida), just like regular cigarettes.”

We’ll keep you posted about the bill’s progress in the legislature.

 

Getting bigger and better, just like Wesley Chapel

gary-newEditorial by Gary Nager

Judging by all of the new “stuff” that’s still coming to Wesley Chapel (see page 14, current issue), it’s easy to understand why the longest continuously published (by the same owner) publication directly mailed to all of the single-family subdivisions (and many of the multi-family units in the same communities) in Wesley Chapel continues to break through barriers in terms of local advertising sales, readership, popularity and ability to help the local businesses who choose to advertise in these pages.

Although we have been directly mailed to Wesley Chapel since I purchased the Neighborhood News in February 1994, our separate (and separately-mailed) Wesley Chapel edition has not yet reached double digits in years. Even so, the reason I split it off from what used to be two issues per month mailed to both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel was because I saw how quickly the Wesley Chapel area was growing between 2005-08 and I was also the only local publisher regularly following — and providing updates in print and on-line about — everything that was still to come to Wesley Chapel, which once had a concrete barricade on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. separating Wesley Chapel from what is now called New Tampa at the Pasco County line.

Even so, I couldn’t in my wildest dreams imagine the kind of growth I’ve seen while doing the same job since Feb. 1994 — much less the last ten years — in U.S. Postal zip codes 33543, 33544 and 33545.

And yes, it’s still coming, which I know has many of us concerned about the traffic and other issues all the continuing growth will bring, but it certainly also has helped your direct-mail community news magazine continue to grow along with Pasco County’s fastest-growing community.

A case in point is this issue, which is the first time we’ve had to expand to 48 pages in the shorter history of our Wesley Chapel issue — which we both split off from New Tampa and switched both editions from their one-time quarter-folded newspaper style to their current oversized magazine format — back in 2008.

In a little less than eight years, the Wesley Chapel edition has grown from its original 28 pages back then to average more than 40 pages the last two years, including our previous high page count of 44, a barrier we had reached several times in both 2014 and 2015, but had never had quite enough advertising to warrant a 48-page issue.

That is, until this edition. But, everyone who works with us knows that no matter how many ads we sell, if we don’t continue to do the little things to help as many of you keep reading every page of every issue — and keep those advertisers as happy as we possibly can by continually improving and refining our finished product every two weeks (our next New Tampa issue will hit mailboxes in 33647 on Jan. 28-29) — it all can go away…in a hurry.

My 22-year commitment (as of next month) has been and continues to be to bring more news and information that’s pertinent to the lives of our readers in both of our markets to keep you reading, not just the “advertorials” that are still part of what we do, but certainly not the only or even the most important thing we do. Anyone can tell you about a local business, but we believe it takes the Neighborhood News to keep the people in both of our distribution areas informed about what’s happening in those areas — and maybe even entertained a little.

As always, I thank you again for the unique opportunity and privilege I have to serve our wonderful readers and advertisers.

‘Taste-y’ News Coming Soon?

I know I’ve teased this a few times before, but yes, there should soon be news about the return of what was once my favorite annual local event, the Taste of New Tampa! I can’t say any more right now, but I will be involved and I will be excited to provide more info…as soon as next issue!