Less than a month after learning child abuse charges against him were dropped, former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair said he thinks the scuffle could revive his political career.
In an exclusive interview with NBC affiliate News Channel 8 on July 29, Blair said he spent the days following his Father’s Day morning arrest stemming from a scuffle with his teenage sons worrying about the impact the incident would have on his career. But in reality, he said, the news coverage re-launched him back into the public eye.
“I felt like my whole life had come unglued,” he said during the interview. “I want to turn a negative into a positive.”
He said he is now inspired to advocate for parents’ rights to discipline their children and support curfews to keep kids off the streets at night.
According to Blair, the early morning scuffle with his two sons was related to a violation of curfew and some other “recent issues” with the boys. Authorities arrested Blair at his home on two child abuse charges after a brawl with his sons in mid-June.
According to Blair he woke up at 3:30 a.m. that Sunday morning and decided he was hungry. So he began cooking salmon in the kitchen. Shortly after, he told the reporter that he heard a commotion near his front door and found his two sons, 17 and 14, with two of their friends.
Blair said he was upset and began listing their punishments, which included no car, no cell phone and no computer.
“At that point,” he said, “something banged me in the eye.”
And soon police were involved when Blair, a former professional wrestler, said he fought his sons off of him.
Since losing his reelection bid for commissioner to Kevin Beckner last fall, Blair has remained quiet about his political ambitions.
However, a day after the News Channel 8 interview, he said he plans to run for the State Representative District 47 seat currently held by Kevin Ambler. Ambler’s seat is up in 2010 due to term limits.
Blair hasn’t made an official announcement about his candidacy, but said he has been considering it for awhile and will talk to his advisors about future plans, according to the Tampa Tribune.
