With Barack Obama winning more than 66 percent of the district in 2008 and Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor winning more than 70 percent of the vote that year, Republican Mike Prendergast, a retired Army officer and one time aide to U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, has his work cut out for him if he wants to knock off the incumbent.
The district -- which encompasses most of Tampa, parts of St. Petersburg and a part of Manatee County -- clearly favors the Democrats. Castor also has a healthy financial advantage. On Oct. 13, she had raised more than $822,000 compared to Prendergasts almost $418,000. Castor had more than $330,000 on hand at that time, compared to Prendergasts war chest of around $73,000.
Trying to take advantage of 2010 increasingly appearing to be a Republican year, Prendergast has started hammering Castor, linking her to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and garnering the support of prominent national Republicans.
Prendergast blasted the Democrats for increasing spending, the deficit and the national debt.
When Representative Nancy Pelosi gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be no new deficit spending, wrote Prendergast to supporters on Tuesday. Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Castor and Pelosi equal more spending for them and less take home pay for us. Let's send them packing!
Prendergast has gained some national attention from prominent Republicans. U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, was an early Prendergast backer. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is contemplating running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, and former Gov. Jeb Bush also backed Prendergast.
Another possible Republican presidential candidate endorsed Prendergast on Tuesday -- former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and is considering making another attempt in 2012, backed Prendergast through HuckPAC, a leadership PAC he is using to back Republicans across the country.
Huck PAC and I are pleased to support Mike Prendergast for Congress, from Floridas 11th Congressional District, said Huckabee, who moved to Florida earlier in the year. A native of Tampa, and with more than three decades of service in the United States Army, Mike Prendergast has unique life experiences thatll help make him a great congressman.
Recognizing that our tax system is in desperate need of a change, Mike will fight for a simpler and fairer tax system, added Huckabee. Mike understands that our economy is the most important challenge facing America today, and in order to create jobs we need to eliminate the excessive government regulations and overly burdensome taxes levied on all Americans.
We need more warriors in Congress who will fight for the American taxpayer and not waste our hard-earned dollars, and Mike Prendergast is just that man, said Huckabee.
Castor has ignored Prendergast, focusing her campaign efforts on outreach to the community and promoting job creation.
For example, on Monday, Castor cheered the news that the U.S. Department of Transportation was sending $800 million to Florida to invest in a high-speed rail connection between Tampa and Orlando.
"We are putting thousands and thousands of Floridians to work on a transportation and jobs initiative that will benefit Florida residents, small-business owners, and aid future economic growth," said Castor, who was a leading advocate of the measure.
"People are already at work on the Tampa to Orlando segment, and workshops are underway for small-business owners to tap into new business opportunities," added Castor. "Todays major investment means that thousands more Floridians will be put to work."
When it was announced last week that Port Manatee would receive $9 million in federal funds to expand its facilities, Castor stressed the amount of jobs this would bring her region.
Port Manatees grant award is good news for our community because the port is a major economic engine in our region, said Castor. This money will help the port increase business and create new jobs.
While Castor has praised the job-creating benefits of federal projects, including focusing on jobs created through money from the federal stimulus targeted for alternative energy, Prendergast insisted the stimulus failed to create jobs when he unveiled his jobs plan last week.
We allocated $200 million to Florida, but we created only 77 jobs in Hillsborough County, said Prendergast on Thursday. We must do better. We can, and we will, use the taxpayers money more effectively and my plan shows how to achieve job growth.
Prendergast added that the best way to increase the number of jobs was to enact free-market solutions, cut the size of the federal government, protect small businesses and increase American exports.
My plan may not be the final solution, but it is a great starting point focused on jobs for the people of Tampa Bay, said Prendergast. But what is unacceptable for me and undeserving for the people of the 11th District is the blind spending that has buried us in a 12 percent unemployment rate with no clear plan to remedy the problems.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859
