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Are Democrats retaliating against Wengay Newton in re-election fight?

 
Wengay Newton
Wengay Newton
Published Aug. 24, 2018

ST. PETERSBURG — Fallout from the 2017 mayoral race is stirring up emotions in the Democratic primary for state House District 70.

Candidate Vito Sheeley is calling into question just how much of a Democrat incumbent state Rep. Wengay Newton really is after a mailer encouraged registered Republicans and Independents to vote for Newton.

The mailer was paid for by a GOP political action committee and prominently features a photo of Newton and former Mayor Rick Baker, the Republican who ran a bruising campaign against Democratic incumbent Mayor Rick Kriseman.

Newton crossed party lines in endorsing Baker, who calls him a friend. Newton was elected to City Council in 2007 when Baker was in office.

"I think it's very bad for Mr. Newton to take sides with the Republican Party in a Democratic primary," said Sheeley, 45. "He claims to be a Democrat, but he shows his allegiance to the Republican Party, whether it's taking donations from them or supporting their candidates."

Newton said he hadn't seen the mailer and doesn't know anything about it.

"Obviously, we're at the stage in the campaign where it's desperation time," said Newton, 54. "They attack your donors, they pull your signs up, they say or do whatever it takes."

The mailer encourages non-Democrats to vote for Newton in the primary, which is open to all voters because no Republican candidate decided to run in the general election.

"Mayor Rick Baker and Many Other Republicans endorse Wengay Newton!" said the flier, which was paid for by Suncoast Better Government Committee.

The lack of a Republican candidate means the winner of the Aug. 28 primary will go straight to the Legislature. For Newton, that would mean a second term in office in a district he dominated in 2016, winning by 84 percent in the general election.

District 70, which includes portions of Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties and is centered around St. Petersburg, has traditionally been a stable Democratic seat.

Newton accused the local Democratic leadership of recruiting Sheeley and Keisha Bell, 43, to run against him in retaliation for his support of Baker.

Pinellas County Democratic Party chair Susan McGrath said she guarantees the party did not recruit anyone to run against Newton. Instead, she said Newton cast votes and took actions that are unpopular in his district.

"Even if we wanted to recruit candidates, we didn't need to, because he left that void where people saw the opportunity to challenge him," McGrath said.

She was also critical of Newton's strong relationships with Republicans, pointing to the GOP-funded mailer and fundraisers Newton has hosted with the members of that party. She specifically mentioned former state Sen. Jack Latvala, the Clearwater Republican whose four-decade career ended in a sexual harassment scandal last year, and his son state Rep. Chris Latvala.

"For whatever reason, now, he seems to have closer relationships with the Rick Bakers and the Latvalas of the world," McGrath said. "That's unusual at least, but his votes are things that I think constituents are scratching their heads about, too."

Sheeley is a veteran Democratic operative who has worked for U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, and Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg. Bell, a lawyer, has lived in the area most of her life and ran, unsuccessfully, for Pinellas County School Board in 2010 and 2012

Sheeley was endorsed by several high-profile Democrats: Kriseman, Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch, St. Petersburg Council chairwoman Lisa Wheeler-Bowman, and Pinellas County School Board chairwoman Rene Flowers.

"We should not even have to be at this point," Newton said of the three-person race. "This is the safest seat we have in a house. My Republican colleagues tell me, 'We would never run someone against another Republican. We wouldn't waste the money. There's no point.'?"

Both Sheeley, who worked on Kriseman's re-election campaign, and Bell insisted that no one recruited them to run against Newton.

"I can promise you completely honestly here that no one approached me about running against Mr. Newton," Sheeley said. "My reasons for running against Mr. Newton are that I felt for the past two years in the statehouse and eight years on city council, he has nothing to stand on, no legacy to look back on, and he hasn't proven himself as a good leader."

Sheeley also criticized Newton for signing a budget that slashed education funding and for supporting the effort to consolidate the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and place it under the control of the main USF campus in Tampa.

Newton defended his votes, arguing that consolidation would have been approved with or without his vote. Instead of withholding support, he said he negotiated with Republicans to add more money to increase outreach efforts to minority students.

Newton served eight years on the St. Petersburg City Council. He has out-raised his primary opponents, with nearly $68,000. Sheeley has raised about $24,000 and Bell just over $14,000.