The balance of St. Petersburg City Council endorsements in the mayoral race has shifted toward Charlie Crist, with Council member Mike Harting becoming the third sitting member to back the former governor.
Harting’s endorsement breaks what had been an even split on the eight-member council. Council Chair Lisset Hanewicz and Gina Driscoll had already endorsed Crist, while Copley Gerdes and Deborah Figgs-Sanders backed incumbent Mayor Ken Welch. Harting had previously remained publicly uncommitted.
That makes the publicly announced endorsements 3-2 in Crist’s favor, while three council members have not publicly backed either candidate. The runoff election is set for Nov. 3.
Harting, who represents District 3 and was elected in 2024, said in a Crist campaign release that he had listened to the candidate’s vision for St. Petersburg and believed Crist had the experience and ideas to address issues including affordability, hurricane response and government efficiency.
Harting’s support is notable because council members have worked alongside the Welch administration on many of the issues defining the mayoral campaign. Harting, for example, voted to pause the administration’s selection process for redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District earlier this year and subsequently said he would have preferred elements of two competing proposals be combined.
Crist campaign manager Michelle Todd Schorsch declined to characterize Harting’s reasons beyond his public statement, saying Harting should speak for himself. She said, however, that Harting and Crist had spent time discussing challenges facing the city and potential improvements.
“Mike loves this city as much as I do,” Crist said. “He does his homework and he asks hard questions and he cares about the city we leave to the next generation.”
Crist added that he believed Harting saw that he was “serious about making City Hall work for the people who pay for it.”
Schorsch said the campaign would not speak for the council members about why they chose Crist over Welch. She argued, however, that they hear many of the same concerns from residents that Crist hears on the campaign trail, citing water bills, storm recovery, property taxes and responsiveness from City Hall.
Crist is proposing citywide digital water meters that allow residents to track usage, a public dashboard measuring city performance, emergency text alerts and a neighborhood-level debris removal tracker following storms.
The campaign also said Crist wants neighborhood-level reports showing capital spending and a more streamlined permitting process.
“Technology isn’t the goal,” Crist told Poliverse. “The goal is a city that answers the phone, fixes the pipe, and tells you the truth about where your money went. Technology helps us get there.”
Harting’s endorsement renews attention on the relationship between the next mayor and a council that remains divided in its political support.
“The day after the election, there are no Crist council members and Welch council members,” Crist said. “There’s one City Council, and they were elected by the people of St. Pete just like the Mayor.”
Crist said he would meet individually with every council member during his first 30 days in office.