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Mayoral election just weeks away, and many residents can't name a single candidate

We hit the streets of downtown Tampa to ask residents what they knew about the race. Most couldn't come up with a single name.

TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa mayoral election is just two weeks away. To gauge voter preparedness, we went to downtown Tampa to talk to voters and figure out what they know about this race. 

The conclusion: not much. 

The majority of people we spoke to could not name a single candidate out of the pool of seven that will be on the ballot on March 5.  

A handful knew one or two candidates. 

New Tampa resident Nadine Poliard was one of the first to pull a name: "I know one name, Straz." As in David Straz.

And she knew there were more. "Yes I know there are many others, I just don't recall any of the others. Unfortunately."

And even though most people didn't know who they could or would vote for, they did have thoughts on the policies and issues they care most about.  

Poliard will be considering "overall growth and affordable housing" when she hits the polls. 

Sandy McLaughlin has a number of policy areas she will be cross-referencing candidates against before she picks her mayor. 

"So affordable housing, neighborhoods, transportation would probably be at the top of my list." 

When it comes to transportation, every candidate has ideas and a plan on how to tackle traveling in Tampa. At a recent forum, a number of the candidates spoke about transportation. 

Ed Turanchik explained his "Go Plan," which focuses heavily on transportation.

 "It’s meant to be a complete transit plan for our city with 44 miles of congestion-proof transit and bikeway corridors. That’s where we grow. We need to stop having higher density at the end of two-lane streets that’s just flooded with traffic. We need to manage our growth, and our transportation, and they are one in the same things."

At the same forum, Straz stressed the importance of a transportation plan. 

"My Quality of Life Committee is going to deal with that on a regular basis. We have enough money coming in now that we can deal with transportation problems, street problems, sidewalk problems, ditch problems, all these things that we must deal with."

Topher Morrison also acknowledged the need for transit solutions. 

"Anytime someone has a conversation about transportation, without a conversation about transit-oriented development, I worry. I worry that they don’t really get that you can spend millions of dollars on transportation but if you have not updated the building codes to make sure we are doing transit-oriented development to surround that, we have a problem."

And Dick Greco Jr. used his familiarity with the city to address the growing transportation problem in a positive light. 

"I think we have to embrace what has happened in Tampa. I was born here in 1954. It was a town. Now it is a great, great city. What has happened is our success has caused us to have a lot of these problems. People want to move here. Why? Because of people like you. You’re nice. They want to live with people like you. We have a great environment. We have all types of things for people to do. We have jobs. We have great educational facilities."

And the three other candidates who were unable to address transportation at the forum do have transportation plans on their websites. 

On Jane Castor's official website, she says:

  • A Better Transportation Future. Jane is the only candidate for mayor who has seen the deadly and devastating effects of an overburdened road and street intersection system, or the human suffering that results when our first responders can not do their jobs because of rush hour gridlock.  We can and will do better. You, the people, have said “Enough”. You’ve granted leaders the tools to fix our transportation problems. The same way we effectively attacked crime with innovative thinking, as your next mayor, Jane will use the skills learned in city leadership to effectively keep people and traffic moving.

Harry Cohen's website:

  • As Tampa’s next Mayor, Harry Cohen will be the region’s leading voice in implementing the mandate of All for Transportation in both the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County. He will use his experience as Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Chair of the MPO Policy Committee, Chair of the MPO’s Transportation Disability Coordinating Board and as an advocate on Tampa City Council for streetcar modernization/expansion to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent consistent with the principles adopted in the MPO’s Vision 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan

Mike Suarez's website:

  • To be the great city everyone wants Tampa to be, we must significantly increase the number of transportation choices our residents and visitors have available to reach their destination, no matter how distant or close. There is no one answer, and the answers will only evolve in time as technology and innovation advances.
  • With the recent passage of the All For Transportation sales tax, residents of Tampa shall rely on our city government to be vigilant stewards of this new revenue to ensure it is spent exactly as allocated and resulting in the greatest return we are able to estimate.
  • Every neighborhood shall rely on our city government to pursue more transportation choices through streetcar expansion, added bus routes, and greater shared ventures with ride-sharing companies.
  • Every resident and visitor shall rely on our city government to rapidly pursue technological advancements to provide the current status of available parking, traffic conditions and transportation options on smartphone apps and displays in public spaces like the airport, hotels and major venues.
  • Every resident and visitor shall rely on our city government to plan for use of city-owned land as transit-oriented development areas to better anticipate future population migration to downtown.

For complete election news, visit our Eye on Politics page.

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