As we know, West Tampa jeweler Guido Maniscalco won his Tampa City Council District 6 race by 151 votes over Jackie Toledo. As we also know, Toledo was no gem of a candidate in what turned out to be one of the most contentious campaigns in city council history. She ran a well-financed, negative, ethically-challenged campaign topped off with disingenuous spin to rationalize the result.
“I’m not a negative person,” declared Toledo in her postmortem. “I believe that rejection is a protection from God, and God has a plan for me, and this is part of his plan.”
Not to impugn the Deity, but it’s hard to fathom some celestial plan that included deceptive photo superimposition, a misleading highway-site ad, third-party PAC attack mailers and Anthony Pedicini.