Half of St. Petersburg City Council has now picked a side in the mayoral runoff, and the endorsements are evenly split between Mayor Ken Welch and former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Councilmembers Copley Gerdes and Deborah Figgs-Sanders are backing Welch, while Gina Driscoll and Council Chair Lisset Hanewicz have endorsed Crist. Brandi Gabbard, Mike Harting, Corey Givens Jr. and Richie Floyd have not publicly endorsed either candidate.

The split offers a window into how some of the elected officials who have worked most closely with Welch view his first term. Council members have spent the past several years voting on his budgets and major initiatives, from the Historic Gas Plant District to utility rates and hurricane recovery.

Gerdes and Figgs-Sanders endorsed Welch before the Aug. 18 primary. Welch’s campaign announced their support in April as part of a larger group of local elected and community leaders backing his reelection.

Gerdes has pointed to Welch’s leadership through recent hurricanes and the recovery that followed. Figgs-Sanders has similarly backed the mayor’s approach to major city issues, including redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District.

Driscoll went the other direction in July, becoming the first sitting council member to endorse Crist. Her decision also came while fellow Councilmember Gabbard was still running against both men.

“I believe St. Petersburg has been on pause,” Driscoll wrote in announcing her endorsement. She said Crist could “restart the progress that made this city great.”

As of today, Hanewicz has joined Driscoll in backing Crist, leaving the four council members who have endorsed evenly divided between the two finalists.

The newest endorsement from Hanewicz comes as Welch tries to close the distance after his second-place finish in the primary. Crist received 35% of the vote to Welch’s 20.5%.

Neither candidate received the majority needed to win outright, sending Crist and Welch to a Nov. 3 runoff.

Crist has picked up additional support since the primary. Former mayors Rick Baker, Bill Foster and Bob Ulrich are backing him, as are former mayoral candidates Kevin Batdorf and Maria Scruggs.

Former mayoral candidate and District 2 city council member Gabbard has not followed suit on endorsements.

That leaves four sitting council members publicly on the sidelines. Gabbard occupies a unique position among them after spending months campaigning against both Welch and Crist, and coming within roughly four percentage points of the incumbent in the primary.

Harting, Givens and Floyd have also not publicly backed either candidate, and Floyd stated to Polivese that he will not be endorsing anyone, as “neither candidate reflects [his] politics.”

Several issues seem to have caused the split and have worked their way into the mayoral campaign: Crist has criticized Welch over affordability, hurricane recovery, the Rays and the Historic Gas Plant District, while Welch has attacked Crist for offering few specifics on how he would address those issues.

Property taxes have provided another fissure: Welch has proposed keeping the city’s millage at 6.4525, while Crist has called for cutting it by 0.4 mills.