Tampa Mayor, Commissioners Face Opponents in March 7 City Elections

TAMPA, FL — City of Tampa voters will choose a mayor and six city council members to represent them during municipal elections March 7.

The qualifying period to run for office in the city of Tampa ended at noon Monday.

"This is an important day, because now we know who will be on the ballot," said Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer.

• Current Tampa Mayor Jane Castor will face write-in candidate Belinda Noah.
• Longtime District 1 city council member Joseph Citro has three challengers for the seat: Sonja P. Brookins, Alan Clendenim and Chase Harrison.
• Running for the District 2 seat held by Guido Maniscalco are Michael Derewenko, Robin Lockett, Gary Pruitt and Mike Suarez.
• Challenging District 3 councilwoman Lynn Hurtak, who was appointed to replace councilman John Dingfelder in April are K.J. Allen, former Florida Sen. Janet Cruz, George "The Hunted" Feshev and Jose Vazquez.
• Challenging councilman Bill Carson for the District 4 seat is Blake J. Casper.
• Vying for District 5 councilman Orlando L. Gudes' seat are Gwendolyn "Gwen" Henderson and Evelyn Jane-Marie McBridge.
• And running against District 6 councilman Charlie Miranda are Tyler Barrett, Rick Fifer, Nicole Payne and Hoyt Prindle.
• District 7 councilman Luis Viera is running unopposed.

The city of Tampa ballot will also contain four amendments to the Tampa City Charter:

• Ordinance 1 will allow standing boards and committees to be created by the city council without requiring a recommendation from the mayor.
• Ordinance 2 requires that heads of city departments selected by the mayor must have the approval of four city council members.
• Ordinance 3 limits the terms of city council members to four years.
• And Ordinance 4 requires that a charter review advisory commission be established every eight years instead of every 10 years, and that legal counsel and a professional facilitator be hired to oversee the commission.

Only registered voters who live in the city of Tampa are eligible to vote in the upcoming municipal election.

On Monday, ballots will be mailed to absent military and overseas voters who have requested a ballot.

On Feb. 2, ballots will be mailed to domestic voters who have requested vote-by-mail ballots.

All those wishing to vote by mail must request a ballot even if they sent in a request for the general election in November 2022. All vote-by-mail requests expired in December in accordance with the new election law passed by the Legislature last year. Voters who want to submit a new request for 2023 and 2024 elections can visit VoteHillsborough.gov or call 813-612-4180.

"Vote by mail has been the most popular method of voting since 2018," Latimer said. "I don't want anyone to assume they'll get a ballot in the mail and then run out of time to request one."

For the 2019 city of Tampa elections, Latimer said his officer sent out more than 58,000 vote-by-mail requests. For the upcoming 2023 election, only about 12,000 city of Tampa voters have a request in.

"The March 7 election may seem far off, but we will start mailing ballots out in less than a month," said Latimer.

Vote-by-mail requests used to stay in effect through two general election cycles, but the state Legislature limited the request to one cycle in 2022. So, at the end of last month, every vote-by-mail request expired.

Voters will need to provide their Florida driver's license or ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to verify their identity.

The supervisor of elections will continue mailing ballots within two business days of receiving requests. The last day voters can request a vote-by-mail ballot is Feb. 25, 10 days before the election.

Feb. 6 is the deadline to register to vote, if not already registered.

On Feb. 20, sample ballots will be sent to eligible voters who haven't requested a vote-by-mail ballot.

Early voting will take place from Feb. 27 to March 5 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at seven sites. Voters can vote at any early voting site during the early voting period. Voters can also drop off vote-by-mail ballots at secure ballot intake stations inside early voting sites when they're open. Click here for a list of early voting sites.

Voters may vote on election day, March 7, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the polling place assigned to their precinct. Click here to find your polling place.

If they still have a mail ballot to turn in, it must be dropped off at one of the four supervisor of elections offices no later than 7 p.m.

Any candidate who wishes to introduce themselves to voters and discuss their reasons for running for office may submit candidate profiles to dann.white@patch.com. Please include a photo and verification that you own the copyright to the photo.