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Sharpe to make announcement, may be out of House race

Posted Feb 9, 2012 by William March

Updated Feb 9, 2012 at 07:16 PM

Republican Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe will make an announcement Friday about his race for the U.S. House against Democratic incumbent Rep. Kathy Castor, and friends and supporters expect he’ll leave the race.

In recent days, Sharpe has been saying the newly redrawn Tampa-based congressional District 14 is just too tough for a Republican. The district already was heavily Democratic, and appears to have become even more so in the redistricting currently being undertaken by the Legislature.

Previously, Sharpe had said he wouldn’t let a heavily Democratic district stop him from running.

Making his announcement of the race in August, he said, “I’m fully prepared to run, however the mapmakers draw the map.”

Speaking to a gathering of Republicans in December, he said, “I’m hopeful that we’ll have a fair map, but I don’t care if the whole district is in South St. Petersburg,” a heavily Democratic area. “I’m going to beat (Castor).

“I don’t want a safe district. I want to represent everybody, black, white and Hispanic,” he added.

Lately, however, Sharpe has sounded different, calling the newly redrawn district “very challenging.”

“We’re not even talking uphill, it’s straight vertical,” he said last week, speaking of “a likely suspension of our campaign,” at least until the expected court challenge to the new district plan is settled.

Sharpe has said he didn’t want to ask friends and supporters to contribute financially to his campaign if he has no chance of winning.

The district originally was drawn in 1992 as a minority access district with large black and Hispanic populations. The goal of the Republican-dominated legislators who created it was to allow a potential minority candidate to win, but also to make surrounding districts safe for Republicans, by taking out Democrats and packing them into the Tampa district.

Several Sharpe supporters and donors said they’ve heard nothing concrete, but that the talk among Republicans is that Sharpe will leave the race.

“I’ve heard rumblings from a number of sources that he’ll bow out,” said supporter and friend Joe Chillura. “Knowing his meticulous nature, it’s what I’d expect.”

Working the crowd at the State Fair Governor’s Lunch Thursday, Sharpe declined to reveal the substance of his announcement, saying he will “explain everything” in it.

He’ll appear on an 11 a.m.-1 p.m. radio show hosted by local GOP consultant Chris Ingram on News Talk radio, 1470 AM.