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Sharpe: I won’t be deterred by tough district

Posted Dec 15, 2011 by William March

Updated Dec 15, 2011 at 04:29 PM

Mark Sharpe told a group of Republicans gathered for a political lunch today that he won’t be deterred from his race for Congress by the prospect of running in a heavily Democratic district.

Early versions of a new congressional district plan coming out of the Legislature show no major change in the political character of Tampa-based District 11, currently held by Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor—it continues to include heavily Democratic areas in St. Petersburg and Bradenton. That would appear to give a Republican little chance of winning, unless litigation drastically changes the plan.

Sharpe got some skeptical questioning on the subject—“I’m a supporter, but I’m also somewhat of a realist ... how can you take on a safe Democratic district?” asked one attendee.

But Sharpe answered with bravado.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll have a fair map, but I don’t care if the whole district is in South St. Petersburg,” he said. “I’m going to beat her.”

Several of the South Tampa Republicans in the meeting spoke resentfully of what they called the “gerrymandered” district, but none mentioned the gerrymandering was done by a Republican-controlled Legislature for the purpose of maximizing Republican seats. Adding Democrats to Castor’s district served to Republicanize several surrounding districts.

But Sharpe said, “I don’t want a safe district. I want to represent everybody, black, white and Hispanic.”

Sharpe also advocated bipartisanship in ways not often heard from Republicans recently, including praising Oregon Rep. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, and Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan who reportedly are working together on Medicare reform.

“The issues we face are so dire we’ve got to work together,” he said. “Despite the problems and challenges and the vitriolic conversation, there’s an opportunity to pull our country together.”

One change that was made in the district under the map proposed by the state Senate was adding more of northeast St. Petersburg to the district. State Sen. Jack Latvala, attending the lunch, said he intends to try to change that to prevent splitting the city in two. Latvala said he’ll seek to add more Hillsborough territory instead, likely suburban areas east of Tampa.

Trading northeast St. Petersburg for East Hillsborough suburbs, however, probably wouldn’t significantly change the political performance of the district.