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Dicks Hires Campaign Team For House Race

Posted Jan 3, 2008 by William March

Updated Jan 4, 2008 at 12:00 PM

Former Plant City Mayor John Dicks has hired local political strategist Ana Cruz and campaign finance director Joe Perry for his U.S. House District 9 campaign.

Dicks is competing in a primary with William Mitchell of Carrollwood and two other Democrats for the nomination to challenge Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor. Mitchell already has hired Sutter’s Mill Fundraising & Strategy, a Washington-based fundraising and consulting firm.

Either one faces one significant, potential handicap: So far, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which raises money for Democrats running for U.S. House seats, has not decided to “target” the District 9 race. The DCCC devotes its resources to races in which it believes there’s a good chance of winning. It makes that decision based partly on the strength of the Republican candidate and partly on how much money and support the Democratic candidate can garner on his own.

Dicks said he visited the DCCC last month and “They encouraged me to get into this race.”

“This is a winnable seat, I’ve put a strong team in place, and we’re going to hit our benchmark numbers and make the DCCC stand up and pay attention to this viable race,” he said.

Cruz is a veteran Tampa Bay area political operative who is a former state Democratic Party executive director. Perry, of Tallahassee, is a former city council member in Seminole who has worked for Rod Smith’s governor’s race, among others.

Sutter’s Mill is an established Democratic political campaign consulting firm that has worked for Rep. Allen Boyd, among others.

Anita de Palma of Clearwater, former Florida state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, has also said she will run in the Democratic primary, as has Michael van Hoek of Valrico, whose career has included work as an emergency medical technician and paramedic.