TAMPA, Fla. — Election day for Tampa’s new mayor is just over a week away. The candidates are hitting the ground as the race enters its final days.
Licencia Para Divertirse held a forum at the Villagios Cinema for the Latin community. It was the 3rd event for Latin voters in four days.
Five of the seven on-the-ballot candidates were there for the mixer and forum. Dick Greco Jr. was able to attend the mixer and but had to leave early. Candidates Topher Morrison, Harry Cohen, Mike Suarez and Jane Castor took the stage at the forum.
The questions were pre-selected by various Latin institutions and groups and each candidate had a minute and thirty seconds to answer.
When asked how the candidates would support Hispanic entrepreneurs, Morrison, who bills himself as the "small business candidate" for mayor, promised to do more for the community.
“The actual statistics, the city came back and corrected me, as if it were something to be proud of, is that they grant 6 percent of government contracts to black-owned businesses, and 8 percent to Hispanic owned businesses. They were bragging about that. That ain't right," Topher said. "I’ve committed to making sure that we create 25 percent of all contracts given to small business owners that are of Latino and Hispanic, and then another 25 percent to black-owned business. That’s how we change East and West Tampa by the way.”
In the next question, the candidates were asked how they would help protect children at school and from issues like depression and bullying. Cohen addressed an alarming trend in Tampa.
“We have got to do a much better job of building up the transportation safety infrastructure to make sure that our kids get to school safely. We have the number one rate of bicycle and pedestrian fatalities in the country according to certain studies. We are always in the top 10. We must do a better job of this," Cohen said.
While Castor took a stance on arming teachers.
“Having teachers armed in the schools is a ridiculous idea. That is for law enforcement. Teachers should be teaching children they should not be protecting the campuses that are critically important," Castor said.
The final question was about improving summer vacation programs and options for kids, a subject Suarez had a personal connection to.
“And I know as a young boy when I was living in West Tampa, we used to do what they called pool hopping. And what that meant was we used to jump other peoples fences to get into their pools cause we didn’t have a pool at our house, okay. Many hotels along Dale Mabry and other hotels eventually knew, found out who we were, and we couldn’t go back over there so we’d ride our bikes and jump into the pool," said Suarez. He went on to provide solutions. "You need places for kids to go in the summertime in order for them to not get in trouble. That is the key. Having designed programs that make them go in and say, alright, we’re going to have a little bit of fun, but we’re also going to have some other things.”
Tampa's election day is March 5. And if one of the seven candidates on the ballot doesn’t get at least 50 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff election on April 23.
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