If voting margins remain consistent from the Aug. 18 primary into the Nov. 3 general election, former Florida Gov. and U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist is on track to be St. Petersburg’s next mayor.
But what is Crist’s plan? How would he run the city? What could voters expect St. Pete to look like by 2030?
While Crist has touted his experience and pointed out incumbent Ken Welch’s missteps, the mayor has hit Crist on repeating vague ideas and platitudes.
In a recent hourlong interview with the Times focusing on the city’s budget and major redevelopment projects, Crist didn’t say much to counter Welch’s attack.
Crist said he doesn’t know how he’ll vote on a statewide amendment to raise the homestead property exemption, which could leave a $54 million hole in the city’s budget by 2029. He didn’t explain the math behind the $15 million he pledged to return to residents and businesses with a rolled-back tax rate. He said he is “leaning maybe yes” on voting for a new city property tax to accelerate upgrades to water and sewer systems.
He said he wants to keep the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Pete, but two days later, Hillsborough County and Tampa approved a deal to build the team its forever home in Tampa. Without offering specifics, he said his vision is to have a professional sports team, like an NBA or WNBA team.
Speaking of a Rays stadium deal, a reporter asked him what he did and didn’t like about the deal approved by the St. Pete City Council and the Pinellas County Commission in 2024. Crist asked a reporter for the outline of how the deal worked.
The mayor’s race is nonpartisan, but Welch — and many voters — have taken issue with Crist’s history of switching political parties. Crist served as a Republican governor and unsuccessfully ran as an Independent before switching his party to Democrat in 2012. But this is a fraught line of attack as Welch, a Democrat, was previously a Republican.
Asked his vote for governor, Crist said, “probably David Jolly,” his opponent back when Crist successfully ran for Congress in 2016. Asked about his vote for the U.S. Senate seat, Crist said, “Well, not [Alex] Vindman now,” and said he hasn’t made a decision on the candidates remaining, Republican Ashley Moody or Democrat Angie Nixon.
“I like sort of down the middle people, not too strident one way or the other,” Crist said. “I think we have too much of that in our politics today. I think common sense is important and should be valued. I value it.”
We will continue to follow the mayor’s race closely along with the two City Council races on the November ballot. Those seats are vacant due to their incumbents facing term limits.
