Robert Blackmon exits St. Petersburg politics. For now. - Tampa Bay Times

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ST. PETERSBURG — The morning after voters in his hometown decisively chose his opponent to be the next mayor, Robert Blackmon texted congratulations to Ken Welch with a clip from The Simpsons.

The 1996 scene shows the start of a boxing match. A shadowboxing, Mike Tyson-esque figure approaches the ring, wearing a robe with “Mr. Armageddon” emblazoned across the back. Then his opponent, Homer Simpson, walks in with little fanfare as War’s Why Can’t We Be Friends plays. His robe simply reads, “Opponent.”

The mayor-elect didn’t seem to get the joke. Blackmon saw himself as the Homer Simpson in the race, an everyman with no big endorsements and little political experience going up against Welch, the five-term county commissioner and political heavyweight who raised more than $1 million.

“I was trying to be magnanimous,” Blackmon said. “That song, Why Can’t We Be Friends, I played it on the way to every single debate. It’s because it keeps you humble. But also I was trying to keep the mentality of ‘It’s not a war.’”

“You want to win, but he is not your enemy. He’s your opponent,” Blackmon continued. “And there’s a big difference, and people don’t look at that anymore. Politics has become such a bloodsport. It’s all just an all-or-nothing proposition.”

Blackmon, however, threw most of the punches in an otherwise low-key race. He says he was explaining his differences with Welch, not attacking him.

Now, Blackmon is emphatic: He wants Mayor Welch to succeed.

“I hope that everybody supports Ken,” Blackmon said. “I hope that Ken does a great job. I fully support Ken. I like Ken. I’m going to miss being with Ken multiple days a week.”

That’s because Blackmon’s loss in the mayor’s race means his short, three-year political career is, for now, coming to an end.

Sometimes in City Council meetings, the 32-year-old says he stares at the ceiling and looks at the walls, still pinched by a surreal feeling that he was elected to help lead his hometown.

He hates politics, he said, but after reading news coverage of City Hall for years, he didn’t think that commonsense viewpoints were being represented enough in local government.

After he leaves the council in January, Blackmon says he will return to the private sector as a real estate investor.

The council never was just a job to him, he says. It was always about public service.

“I’m not looking for a job. If there was a need or desire for me to step up, I would,” he said. “But again, it really comes down to public service.”

No ‘center-right’ option

Blackmon said he left his first term on the City Council early to run for mayor because he saw no “center-right” option when Welch and fellow council member Darden Rice, both Democrats, joined the race.

In the new year, there will be just one Republican left in City Hall: Council Chairman Ed Montanari, perhaps waiting in the wings for a mayoral run of his own someday.

Going forward, it may get even harder for a Republican to win a citywide race in St. Petersburg. Democrats dominated last week’s election. Republicans couldn’t elect one of their own to City Hall, but Democratic Socialists did.

Municipal races are nonpartisan. But both political parties touted their candidates, and voters strongly voted with their own party affiliation.

In terms of sheer numbers, Blackmon knew he faced an uphill battle. There are twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans in the city, and GOP voters barely outnumber those with no party affiliation.

But, as he insinuated with his Simpsons clip, Blackmon said Welch was the “polished guy that was clearly going to win.” Blackmon added the number one knock he’s heard is that he’s not as polished.

St. Petersburg used to be home to one of the largest Republican clubs in the state, said retired University of South Florida St. Petersburg professor Darryl Paulson, who has studied local politics for decades. But those Republicans have either passed away, he said, or moved away for lower tax rates.

But that’s not the only reason why the city has turned a vivid shade of blue. Black voters are the city’s most important voting bloc. And St. Petersburg has drawn in new, younger residents, attracted by the coastal city’s artsy vibe and burgeoning dining and entertainment scene.

“Given the composition of the city of St. Pete, that might be a real problem for Republicans in the future,” Paulson said. “Can (they) find a good Republican who’s willing to take on the challenge of running against a well-qualified Democrat in a city that’s overwhelmingly Democrat? It’s hard to find a candidate under those circumstances.”

‘A path for Republicans’

Welch won with 60 percent of the vote. What could have helped Blackmon do better?

“Really, what he was lacking was a big-name endorsement from a Republican,” Paulson said. Welch, by contrast, was endorsed by Pinellas County’s highest-profile Republican, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, a supporter of former President Donald Trump and an ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis. Welch was even endorsed by former Republican Mayor Bill Foster.

“There has to be somebody out there who’s respected by Republican partisans to endorse Blackmon to counter all of these endorsements that Welch received,” Paulson said. “Blackmon is a decent person but doesn’t have the same experience and depth of experience.”

The biggest figure in Blackmon’s corner was former Mayor Rick Baker, a Republican who remains a prominent figure in St. Petersburg politics who almost won back City Hall in the intense 2017 mayoral contest.

Baker told the Tampa Bay Times that Blackmon asked for his endorsement — Welch did not.

“I think he’s a very smart young man,” Baker said of Blackmon. “I love his passion. He’s willing to fight for the things he believes in, and I thought he ran a great campaign.”

Former St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Robert Blackmon, left, waves to supporters as former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker gives opening remarks before Blackmon's concession speech Nov. 2 at his watch party at Ringside Cafe in St. Petersburg. [ DIRK SHADD | Times ]

Montanari has been the lone Republican on the City Council before. But he said he saw hope for the GOP when he was re-elected to his final term in 2019, the year Blackmon was elected.

“The state of the party is still strong here in St. Petersburg,” Montanari said. “Mayors races are a little bit tougher. ... It tends to get a little more partisan. But I think at the City Council level is a path for Republicans to win seats.”

The key, he said, is to start early and avoid being pigeonholed as a “Trump Republican.”

“A Trump Republican is going to have a problem here in St. Petersburg,” Montanari said. “You need to be able to build coalitions across the aisle and solve problems that are important to our city.”

Blackmon has refused to say whether he voted for Trump in 2020. Baker, during his last campaign for mayor, also refused to say whether he voted for Trump in 2016.

Blackmon said internal polling after the August primary showed that he could win if he executed on ideas and emphasized change. At every forum, he championed his bipartisan support of resurrecting the beloved Science Center, his city-backed mortgage program and his idea of moving the city’s Municipal Services Center to the defunct Tangerine Plaza, where city leaders have repeatedly tried to spur investment and services for predominantly Black neighborhoods.

For a candidate who touted a message of “St. Pete For All,” Blackmon made a peculiar political calculation: The “Blexit” event he attended the day before the election.

His own advisers, the majority of whom he calls personal friends and Democrats, asked if he was sure attending a ”Blexit” event — which stands for Black Exit from the Democratic Party — in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Childs Park, was a good idea. All the speakers were conservatives and the event was attended by far more white people than Black people.

“Was it a bad move politically? Maybe,” Blackmon said. “But I think there’s always a good move to share a message of unity. I’m proud I did that. And I’m proud of what I said.”

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Robert Blackmon exits St. Petersburg politics. For now. - Tampa Bay Times
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