St. Pete mayoral candidates face off

ST. PETERSBURG - The St. Petersburg mayoral race is in two weeks. At a community forum Tuesday evening, the candidates had the chance to show who he or she is as a person, rather than just a politician.

Democrat Kathleen Ford took the hot seat first. She was asked to name the three most influential people in her life.

"My mother, my father, and then a professor I had at the University of Virginia... a pathophysiologist that I had in nursing school," Ford responded.

The Pinellas Community Church congregation invited Ford and her Republican opponent Bill Foster to the two-hour long forum. Pastor Mark Canfield asked the same questions of both candidates.

Foster told FOX 13 he was looking forward to the format.

"It's more of a conversation and hopefully people will get to know what makes us tick," he said.

The forum covered a wide range of topics including conflict resolution, honesty in city government and St. Pete's homeless population.

"Not all of the panhandlers are homeless, and I think it's real important that we separate that because aggressive panhandling," Ford said. "I think, really needs to be addressed."

Foster talked about his strong faith. He said it guides him, but is not a character flaw as some critics believe.

"I don't govern by a faith model. I govern by the Constitution of the United States. But when it comes to really those guiding principles, I rely heavily on my faith," he added.

One topic, however, was never mentioned. Last week, Ford made controversial comments on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, making reference to a saying with the acronym HNIC. It stands for "Head Negro in Charge." Sometimes the "N" is replaced by the racial epithet.

Ford told Bubba, "Actually, Cornell West has a whole explanation about the HNIC theory, and I agree with that. We don't need one spokesperson for a group."

West is a prominent African American scholar at Princeton University.

A small group of St Pete civic leaders protested Ford's remarks outside of City Hall Monday.

Ford agreed to answer reporters' questions about her comments on the radio program, but she left the forum promptly. Her opponent even expected to hear something about the comments.

"They were ill informed, ill advised, offensive to the human race and I'm sure that it will come up tonight," Foster said.

But Ford's supporters say she's not to blame.

"My feeling is, is that we ought to be upset with Bubba the Love Sponge," St. Pete resident William Graveley said. "He was the one that was ragging Deputy Mayor Davis very disrespectfully and I thought that Mrs. Ford was simply trying to bring an intellectual close to the conversation."

About 100 people attended the forum, but there were many empty seats.

The election is Nov. 3.