With his campaign out of money, Ken Welch is using city resources to boost ID and image

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch is essentially out of money in his campaign to retain his current job. So he’s turning to City Hall to make sure voters know who he is and what he’s done.

The city of St. Pete recently placed 16 banners on public utility properties across the city promoting the St. Pete Agile Resilience (SPAR) program. The banners proudly announce “Resiliency Upgrades Happening Here!” According to documents Florida Politics obtained through a public records request, they are intended “to indicate that SPAR projects are occurring behind the fences that (residents) can’t see.”

Let’s make a few things clear. There is nothing illegal about the city funding banners promoting projects at its facilities, and public records reviewed don’t indicate any direct coordination between the city and the Welch campaign. But — and this is a big but — the banner placements smack of using the mayoral bully pulpit in furtherance of campaign goals, and the optics are just terrible.

And this is not the only example of Welch using his office to reach voters with positive messaging. His social media channels — personal, mayoral and campaign — have all ramped up activity recently. In some cases, that activity looks suspiciously familiar. But more on that in a moment.

As it relates to the SPAR banners, it’s important to remind residents what SPAR actually is, and what it is not. SPAR is a plan, not an action.

According to the city’s own description, it’s “the city’s framework for prioritizing and accelerating resilience work,” including upgrades to “stormwater, wastewater, and drinking water infrastructure.” The SPAR projects listed on an interactive webpage still require funding, which would come from a proposed general obligation (GO) bond raising $600 million. The GO bond requires voter approval.

While there likely are some “resiliency upgrades happening” at the facilities where the banners are placed, the SPAR projects, at this point, are merely proposals, making the banners at least slightly misleading.

Now, back to social media.

On July 17, Charlie Crist — Welch’s top opposition in his re-election campaign — posted a video “hunkering down and talking hurricanes” with Don Germaise, the locally famed meteorologist widely known for keeping locals prepared and calm during the active 2004 hurricane season, including Hurricane Charlie. The 27-minute video includes important hurricane preparedness information.

Fast forward to today, July 22, and Welch has a video up on his official Mayor’s Facebook page similarly sharing hurricane tips.

On July 14, Welch posted a video urging residents to vote in the upcoming Primary, including information about how to vote by mail, when early voting starts, and how to track a returned mail ballot.

Crist has also been promoting, through his campaign and affiliated political committee, voting by mail. That includes a six-figure campaign sharing fliers with voters urging them to request mail ballots and providing information on how to do so.

The difference is, Crist is getting out the vote as a candidate. Welch is getting out the vote as Mayor. Again, it’s not illegal. It’s not even necessarily uncommon. But utilizing his platform as Mayor to do things Welch the candidate should be doing smacks of desperation.

For good reason, he’s essentially out of money.

Welch has less than $27,000 in his campaign account, and less than $137,000 in his political committee, St. Petersburg Progress. The combined total, less than $164,000, won’t buy Welch much between now and the Primary — maybe a single mail campaign and staff salaries — and it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to fill his coffers at any reasonable rate.

In the most recent fundraising period for state political committees, St. Petersburg Progress raised just $15,000. Crist’s St. Pete Shines raised $61,000 in the same period. Welch’s campaign raised less than $8,000 in its most recent reporting period, covering June 27 through July 10. Crist raised nearly $11,000.

Overall, Crist maintains nearly $57,000 in his campaign and nearly $989,000 in his PC, more than $1 million combined in spending power.

So it’s no surprise Welch is using his bully pulpit and a handful of dogged supporters to do for him what he lacks the cash to do for himself, optics be damned.

Take Lisa Wheeler-Bowman, for example. She has been ferociously promoting Welch on her social media. Voters are free to support whomever they choose, but as a city employee, her over-the-top public support could make other city employees who don’t support Welch uncomfortable.

When I called this out, she went so far as to block me on Facebook, publicly announcing the move with an AI-generated image of me looking like Shrek and named “Petroll Schortman.”

There is a reason the federal government has the Hatch Act. In place since 1939, the law restricts most federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty, in uniform or while utilizing a government vehicle. The law extends to social media activity, prohibiting employees from advocating for or against a candidate.

While there is no such law on the books for local governments, Wheeler-Bowman’s activity could be construed as an infringement on other employees’ right not to be bullied into supporting the incumbent.

At the end of the day, these examples collectively spotlight a campaign in trouble. Once upon a time, $164,000 would have been plenty of cash to wage a competitive campaign for Mayor.

But it’s not “once upon a time” anymore. Nowadays, winning a mayoral race in a mid-sized city such as St. Pete, particularly in the state’s largest and most expensive media market, easily requires seven figures.

The fact that Welch has been unable to raise it tells voters everything they need to know about Welch’s first term. As the incumbent, he should easily have the funding advantage. But he has squandered relationships and has left himself with nothing but a core base of support while the coalition that put him in City Hall in the first place is hemorrhaging.

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Ed. note: Michelle Todd Schorsch is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee backing Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics.