In a historic first, the City of St. Petersburg elected its first openly gay city councilmember Nov. 3 when Steve Kornell won the District 5 seat with more than 60% of the vote. Heading into the election, Kornell only led by 2%, but a last minute push of mailed flyers and television commercials edged him over rival Angela Rouson.
“We made history here tonight,” said Kornell campaign manager Steve Lapinski. “This was a long, hard fought campaign.”
In other St. Pete election news, Bill Foster narrowly defeated Kathleen Ford in the mayoral race with 52% of the vote. Foster, who has said he would not support St. Pete Pride, has reached out to the LGBT community in recent months and even held a forum with LGBT business leaders at Georgie’s Alibi in September.
Jeff Danner, a long-time supporter of LGBT issues in St. Petersburg, easily won another term in District 8 with more than 70% of the vote.
For full election coverage, see the Nov. 12 issue of Watermark.
