Charlie Crist is well-known across political arenas — from serving as Florida's governor to being a congressman, legislator and state attorney general.
His next goal? Becoming mayor of the city he grew up in: St. Petersburg.
The nonpartisan primary is on Aug. 18, but if no candidate wins a majority, there will be a runoff on Nov. 3. The victor will get sworn in on Jan. 7.
Crist is facing off against incumbent Ken Welch, St. Petersburg City Council member Brandi Gabbard, former St. Petersburg Fire Chief Jim Large, former president of the NAACP St. Petersburg branch Maria Scruggs and former Shore Acres Association president Kevin Batdorf.
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Crist talked about why he's running for mayor, his desire to convince the Tampa Bay Rays to stay in St. Petersburg and more.
The interview transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Why do you want to be mayor of St. Petersburg?
I love St. Pete. It's where I grew up. I've lived there since I was 3 years old. My family lives there. My father is still alive. He lives there. He just turned 94, in fact, on June 12. So hopefully, good genes. But unfortunately, I lost my mother about six months ago. She was 91. My sisters live there. And it's a beautiful place. And I think we need better leadership than we currently have.
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You filed papers a few months ago, so tell us about the moment you decided, "I'm getting in this race."
It was a process. I first started getting calls from some friends in the spring a year ago, encouraging me to consider it. And so I gave it thought and eventually came to the conclusion that the current mayor, Mayor [Ken] Welch, while I like him and think he's a nice fellow, I think we can do better in the administration and city hall in St. Petersburg than what we're getting now.
What do you think is lacking?
Leadership. We look like we have lost our Major League Baseball team. We can start with that. That's catastrophic in my view. Because it's such an element and a central part of what St. Petersburg is all about.
We built Tropicana Field without having a team or thinking that expansion was even possible or probable, and a lot of people put a lot of sweat equity and effort into that — myself among them in a minor way — but it's just heartbreaking to see that occur.
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How much responsibility does Mayor Welch bear for the Rays (leaving St. Petersburg) because there are so many factors at play, right?
I'm an old quarterback. I played quarterback for St. Pete High School and then two years at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. You have to be able to call a play, and you have to be able to execute that play.
For whatever reason, the Rays' time in St. Petersburg looks like it's coming to an end. I hope that's not the case. Should I have the honor of winning this campaign ... I'm a never-give-up kind of guy ... I would give it everything I can to convince them to stay in St. Petersburg. We have a stadium. Tampa doesn't yet. So there's that.
But I just think you need to work hard every day if you're a public official and get to be the mayor of a jewel like St. Petersburg, Florida.
When you're the quarterback, you probably get a little more praise than you should when the team wins and maybe the opposite when they lose. Things that happen on your watch are your responsibility. You don't stop negotiating because you feel like you're at an impasse.
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If the (Tampa ballpark) contracts are signed by January, how much time would you have to turn things around for the Rays? It seems it might be a bit quixotic to sort of try and turn that ship around if they've already got papers in hand.
Well, they don't. They have memorandums of understanding, which are not binding contracts.
I guess it shows some level of good faith, but there isn't a stadium for them to play in really unless they just play it at the spring training site for the Yankees, Steinbrenner Field, which is a fine field, but it's not what you want for a Major League Baseball team.
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Many candidates say the city's response to hurricanes Milton and Helene illustrated what's wrong with how city hall is currently run. Mayor Welch said the city never faced a disaster of that magnitude. He said he learned lessons from it. If you're elected, what would you do differently?
Everything. No. 1, you've got to prepare. I've got experience doing that on a statewide level — both while I was attorney general and as your governor — so I understand what it's like to be prepared before the storm comes.
I mean, you know what's different about an earthquake versus a hurricane? At least you get a warning that it might be coming. They do all the tracking of the storm and how it's going to perform and move forward.
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So you use that preparation to be set for when the storm does hit. You hope for the best but prepare for the worst — just to be prudent and smart.
It seems to me one of the things you can do so that you get debris taken care of after the storm passes is sign contracts with contractors who can do that before storms hit. So they're ready the day after to start cleaning up very quickly.
That did not happen in St. Pete because the administration was not prepared. That's obvious to me because I've been in situations where I had to be prepared for the entire state being subject to being hit by storms.
And had to go through a lot of them as attorney general when Jeb Bush was still governor. He did a magnificent job of being prepared for those storms. So I had a great mentor, if you will, to watch up close and personal during those storms. There were about eight in two years that we had to deal with (in 2004 and 2005).
Fortunately, no storms actually hit Florida while I was governor, but plenty came our way, and we had to be prepared. We were prepared because of the experience I had witnessing what Gov. Bush had done was a great opportunity for me.
You've talked about cutting city property taxes to help residents save money. Opponents say this will force cuts to city services. What about that notion of cutting?
I think people deserve and need relief. I proposed a 0.4 millage reduction that would result in almost $15 million per year back to the taxpayers — still being able to have good fire protection, good police protection, and the necessary items that we have to have in our budget. It's just by being more efficient in how we do it.
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The current administration has umpteen people making over $200,000 a year. That sounds like a lot of fat to me. And so I think what we need to do is be more efficient on behalf of the taxpayers, spend their money wisely, and make sure that when we can make reductions that don't reduce services, give that money back to the taxpayers because it's their money.
The full interview is in the media player above. This story was compiled from an interview conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the entire program here.
