St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch is flailing as his re-election campaign continues to fizzle and it becomes increasingly clear that his days in office are numbered in months, not years.
From using his office to campaign to ill-advised brag-fests about the Tampa Bay Rays, Welch’s desperation now appears on full display, even as he continues to project confidence in an election for which the path was lost long ago.
Let’s start here, with Welch’s latest city-sponsored get-out-the-vote campaign. On Thursday, the Mayor posted a video reel to Facebook encouraging residents to vote and offering information about how and when to do so. He introduced himself as Mayor and filmed the reel from the steps of City Hall. The colors used in the video, particularly at the very end, resemble his trademark orange and green campaign colors.
While Welch is not breaking any election laws with the video, it’s a clear example of him using his office to campaign, something that presents an optics issue even if not a legal one.
“The most important thing is to make a plan that works for you and make sure your voice is heard. Let’s vote St. Pete,” Welch closes in his campai… err … Mayor’s Office video.
There’s also his “City Hall on Tour” series in which the Mayor drags city employees from their jobs to share information about various city projects. Currently, that’s the Historic Gas Plant District and Welch’s selection for its redevelopment.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with constituent outreach, and it’s something any Mayor should be doing. Welch established the City Hall on Tour series in 2023, at a time when facing a credible re-election challenge probably seemed like an impossibility to this Mayor. Then, it was a reasonable effort to reach residents with important information, and it was a decent attempt to make City Hall more accessible to the people.
But there’s a problem. It’s a failed experiment because, for all the city resources used to put these events on, not to mention the staff time involved, no one shows up.
Take a gander at this photo and notice the absolute absence of people. Or this video. On first look, there appear to be plenty of people milling about, but on closer look, it’s mostly just employees mingling with one another at the City Hall equivalent of a high school pep rally no one wants to attend.
But I get it. For Welch, this is the way — at this point, the only way. What else is he supposed to do when he’s straight up out of money? His own debate watch party featured cheap lemonade and bargain wine.
Welch’s political committee, St. Petersburg Progress, is not enjoying the progress it announces. The committee brought in nothing in the most recent reporting period covering Oct. 3 through Oct. 9. The week before that he raised just $8,500 to the committee, and didn’t even reach five figures between that account and his campaign.
The committee has just a little more than $10,000 remaining for the final stretch of this campaign, even as Welch’s challenger, former Gov. Charlie Crist, is sitting on well over $400,000.
Welch’s campaign account is down to less than $14,000, as of Oct. 2. So it’s not as if he’s got money parked there, either.
It’s the homestretch. Candidates should be burning through remaining cash making their final pitches to voters. But at this point, they should also be refilling their coffers to, and this is important, KEEP making that pitch right up until Election Day. But Welch is not only running out of cash, he’s making zero progress in getting more.
At one point I wondered if Welch’s money problem was because he just simply isn’t a good fundraiser. Now I’m beginning to think it’s entirely possible he IS working hard at it, but no one wants to fork over their hard-earned cash to a campaign in distress.
Or one that delivers this level of cringe.
On Thursday, Welch penned an extended comment on Facebook, sharing an article about MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred praising Welch for doing “an unbelievable job getting” Tropicana Field repaired following extensive damage during Hurricane Milton in 2024. His post ignores how much the city had to dump into a stadium the Rays are abandoning or that it was because Welch’s administration made the unfortunate gamble to reduce insurance coverage to save a few bucks, an ill-advised decision that cost the city millions. It also glosses over the fact that, you know, he lost the team.
All the while, he can’t even get his facts straight. Welch writes in the post that there were “more than 40,000 fans a night” at the Rays home playoff games this week. Nope. During Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field there were 35,361 fans in the stands. The following night there were just over 32,000. In fact, empty seats spotted during the game broadcasts sparked criticism over attendance, even though Game 1 was a sellout.
As Welch likes to say, facts are stubborn things, but I guess 40,000 just looks better, facts be damned.
As if it couldn’t get worse, Welch also used Facebook — the only tool he seems to have left in the old toolbox — to share his campaign’s phone-banking operation. There were a lot of yard signs and literature stacked at Welch HQ, but I counted just four people on the phones. It’s no wonder Welch declined a Tampa Bay Times request to have a photographer capture either phone-banking or canvassing activities — it’s an embarrassing display of an understaffed campaign.
The race isn’t over until all votes are counted, and Crist will no doubt campaign right up until the final ballot is dropped and the last precinct locks its doors. But it’s becoming more clear by the day that Welch is about to join former Mayor Bill Foster’s “club of one-timers.” After all, polling this week showed Crist, whom Foster and every other living former Mayor of St. Pete have endorsed, with a 21-point lead over the broke incumbent.
See you soon, Nov. 3.
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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.
