2016 PRO FOOTBALL
HALL OF FAME
KEEPSAKE SECTION
HONORS TONY DUNGY
NUL
tampabay.com
FLORIDA’S BEST NEWSPAPER
SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2016 | $1.50
Write-in
clause
stymies
voters
A TOUR OF DUTY
Thirty-five shadow
candidates file as
write-ins, closing
those primaries.
BY STEVE BOUSQUET
AND MICHAEL AUSLEN
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — In his secretive and impossible bid for public
office, James Bailey will accomplish only this: He will deprive
thousands of residents from voting for their state legislator.
Bailey, 28, is a write-in candidate for a state House seat in
Vero Beach, a three-hour drive
from his home in Clearwater.
He’s not campaigning or raising
money. He faces possible fines for
refusing to file routine campaign
paperwork. He won’t answer
phone calls and emails.
Yet his sham candidacy is
manipulating the outcome of a
race involving four Republicans.
Because only one party fielded
candidates, the primary should
serve as a general election where
all voters, not just Republicans,
cast ballots. Such a “universal”
primary is the intent behind a
1998 constitutional amendment
passed by Florida voters to open
up one-party contests to the
entire electorate.
But this year, Bailey and 34
other people have filed as writein legislative candidates across
Florida, exploiting a notorious loophole that nullifies the
amendment’s purpose. Even
though write-in candidates have
never won an election, state
HOWARD ALTMAN | Times
Army Gen. Joe Votel, aboard the USS New Orleans, reviews the rigid-hull inflatable boats stowed aboard the amphibious transport
dock ship as part of a tour of the 20-nation CentCom region. At one point, the crew got to see a playful side to his inquisitive nature.
Seeking more understanding, U.S. Central Command leader
Gen. Joe Votel visits hot spots in the region under his charge.
BY HOWARD ALTMAN
Times Staff Writer
O
BAGHDAD
n a scorching July morning, Joe Votel
arrives in the Middle East on a much
different mission than those that
brought him here the first few times.
In October 2001, Votel was a colonel parachuting into Afghanistan as commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment. His
goal: to capture the Kandahar airfield as well
as the home of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Less than two years later, he was in Iraq,
helping to seize airfields there.
On this day, Votel, the Army general who
runs U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air
Force Base, isn’t floating to earth with killing in mind. He walks down the gangway of
an enormous, gray cargo jet on a mission infinitely more complex.
Almost four months into his new job at
MacDill, Votel, 58, is visiting Baghdad to learn
more about how the fight against the Islamic
State is going. He wants to get “a good handle,”
he says, on how Iraq’s often warring local forces are working to accomplish a defining objective of the fight — recapture, hold and restore
order in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
But the march toward Mosul is just one pri-
CentCom
region
ASIA
.
AF
ority for Votel durRI
CA
ing an eight-day tour
across some of the
20 nations that make
up the CentCom region.
He left Tampa on July 7 and
spent time in Afghanistan, Bahrain, the Strait
of Hormuz and Jordan before wrapping up in
Iraq. A Tampa Bay Times reporter was one of
five journalists who accompanied him.
“Each trip makes a really unique opportunity to understand what is happening,” says
the CentCom leader, logging his fifth visit to
the region since taking over in March.
.
Cubans
visit one
side of
the bay
See VOTEL, 13A
Come along: Watch Gen. Joe Votel while aboard the USS New Orleans in the Persian Gulf. tampabay.com/video
Vinik’s bubbly other half
Penny Vinik’s artistic vision is bringing the Beach to Amalie Arena.
BY STEPHANIE HAYES
Times Arts and Entertainment Editor
It was a summer day in Washington, D.C., and
Penny Vinik had time to kill before meeting her
son.
For most, the answer would be coffee and smartphone. But Penny headed to the National Building
Museum, to an interactive exhibit called the Beach.
The line was two hours long. She didn’t have
two hours, but felt an urgent pull to see it. She
bought a membership and got in faster.
Inside, she saw a sea of plastic balls, scaffolding, beach chairs, umbrellas, all white as cumulus
clouds on a clear, 70-degree day. Against the starkness, she saw grandmothers, teenagers, babies.
Colors seemed to explode.
She slipped off her wedge sandals and dangled her feet into the orbs. If not for her dress, she
would have submerged her whole body.
She sat there laughing, thinking and seeing the
possibility.
.
See VINIK, 10A
The consular general
tours St. Petersburg
in search of a site for
a Cuban Consulate.
IN LATITUDES
BY PAUL GUZZO
Times Staff Writer
An invitation from Owl Post
Return to J.K. Rowling’s magical universe,
where Harry Potter is back and much is new,
including a book, play and attraction. 2L
IN BUSINESS
5 years of success at TIA
Chief executive Joe Lopano has checked off
nearly every item on his to-do list. 1D
IN PERSPECTIVE
The promise of a great wall
PolitiFact crunches the numbers on how
Trump would build and pay for it. 1P
Penny Vinik,
wife of Jeff
Vinik, saw the
possibilities
in all those
translucent
balls.
TODAY’S WEATHER
INDEX
Scattered storms
Arts
6L
Crossword 5P, F
Astrology
4F
Editorials
Books
8 a.m.
79°
Noon
86°
4 p.m. 8 p.m.
87°
83°
50% chance of rain
Amalie Arena
Vol. 133 No. 7
© Times Publishing Co.
See WRITE-IN, 15A
2P
2-4L
Letters
2P
Business
1D
Lottery
2A
Classified
F
Travel
5L
Tampa has the historic and cultural link to Cuba, but it might be
St. Petersburg that lands the first
Cuban Consulate in the United
States in more than five decades.
Alejandro Padrón, Cuba’s consular general from its Curbs on
e m b a s s y i n lawsuits
WashingA litigation ban
ton, D.C., and blocks citizens
his second in from suing
command,
over property
Armando Ben- seized in Cuba.
como, were Local,1B
in St. Petersburg on Saturday and took a tour of its real
estate assets that was led by
Dave Goodwin, the city’s director
of planning and economic development.
Such a tour did not take place
in Tampa.
“They have some interest in
our city and they want to get to
know more about it,” said Joni
James, CEO of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership,
which along with the University
of South Florida’s Patel College of
.
See CUBA, 4A