Established in 2014, Tampa Bay Rants and Raves is a weekly airing of local and national politics, sports, lifestyles and Tampa Bay memories from a politically incorrect viewpoint.

Leading off: It’s OK to have lived here a while

Clearwater’s city election is a month away. Looking in on the candidate forums, a recurring, and tired, theme we get is “the good old boys” get elected. Most often, the good old boys are folks who didn’t blow into town a few years back, but, in some cases, grew up here, went to school here and have been active volunteers for decades. Yet some recent candidates seem to feel long time residents should have to apologize for being part of the core of the city. And, if these relative newcomers to civic life took time to look at the voting records of the “good old boys” going back the last several decades, they would find solid support for all segments of our city. But it is simply too easy to just make unsubstantiated claims that folks who have lived here a long time want anything but the best for our city.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Related, two weeks back (TBRR 2/4/24) we made a recommendation of Bruce Rector for Clearwater’s next mayor. We double down on that recommendation after his opponent was caught in some breeches of ethics. That sort of conduct has no place in our city’s mayor’s office.

Suddenly, it appears the Democratic National Convention in August could get very interesting.

It’s very difficult to say inflation has fallen when the most basic of needs, food, continues to significantly increase in cost.

Meanwhile, the nation’s interest rates remain at a 22-year high.

Nike is the latest company to announce cutbacks which entail about 1600 jobs. The company has fallen victim to sales declines attributed to, among other things, its far left agenda.

It is expected that just short of one million EV vehicles will be sold this year. Before EV nerds get too excited, they need to know that just a single vehicle alone, the gas-powered Ford F-150, sells three quarters of that total each year.

A few weeks back (TBRR 1/21/24) we highlighted a new term, coffee badging, coming into our lexicon. Another more sinister term, swatting, is being heard way too often.

You won’t see it in their mail outs or on the cable channel that features Scientology, but the “church’s” membership is plummeting. Interestingly, they bought an ad during the Super Bowl.

Monthly luncheon gathering: a group of captains of delicious industry, Milton Hershey, John Pemberton (founder of Coke) and E.F. Krause , a school teacher who turned Texas’ Brenham Creamery into the highly successful Blue Bell ice cream brand.

A crotchety contributor to this blog when asked why he emails rather than texts replies with “Let me know when texting becomes passé, and then I will consider it.”

This week in 1959 (Feb.22) the first Daytona 500 is run with Lee Petty winning in a photo finish. The inaugural race also included long time Dunedin resident Ken Marriott.

Sports, media and other notes:

Spring training games kick off this week with the home town nine hosting the Braves – two teams that should still be playing come October.

The Rays made a lot of moves in the offseason. Their best may have been the signing of former Houston reliever Phil Maton.

From the 5:05 Newsletter staff: I will tell you this for certain, the best way to witness a total collapse of human intelligence is at a 4-way stop.

Related: our neighborhood contains a 3-way stop. You would think that would be easier…..

You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember the opening of the city’s first McDonald’s on Gulf to Bay in the early 1960s - hamburgers 15 cents.

…another thing: No to Clearwater runoffs

It seems we want to continue trying to transform our city of just over 100,000 into a mini-Chicago or Philadelphia. The idea of a strong mayor was wisely swatted down a few years back. Then a Democratic PAC muddied the waters with a contribution to a candidate in the city’s non-partisan election (the candidate lost). Now we’re being asked to link our elections to federal elections and, worse, create runoffs. Like many ill-conceived initiatives, it’s based on an outlier of four years ago when five candidates sought an open seat and the winner gained election with less than 30 percent of the vote. For every one of those, there have been multiple races of three or more with clear majorities – up to as much as 65 percent. Our city’s governmental process has stood the test of time for over a century. There is no clear reason to change it now.

NEXT UP: Self checkout; Palmolive; NFL odds

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