Folks, the new message in Hillsborough County is that you don't oppose rail.  And, more importantly, friends don't let friends oppose rail.  Especially in Facebook pages built in your name.  Undue diligence by Rose Ferlita leaves us asking oursevles: Is Rose Ferlita, current Hillsborough County Commissioner, and maybe a Tampa Mayoral candidate of the future, an anti-railer trying to sneak under the wire and gain Tampa's top spot, potentially undoing everything the current Mayor Pam has worked so hard for? 

Screen capture of FB group sans anti-rail sentiments.

Ferlita says no - and, let's be clear, she's not even an official mayoral candidate yet.  But if she isn't, she's got a reckless band of supporters out there that might well sink her before she even undocks, if she were considering.  One of them, a "Bill Dallas", apparently set up a Facebook group (not unlike Tampa Rail's with its over 200 members now, plug plug), and, in it, evidently made some pretty anti-rail sentiments.  Sentiments that smack of the type of Brian Blair or Ronda Storms, or this guy (still at it eh, "Mithras" - well so am I) that used to permeate Hillsborough County before we kicked the political sh - well, you get the idea - out of anyone who dared tried to stop the train train.

Here's what TampaBay.com quoted from Bill Dallas's FB support page for Rose:

"Can we really afford light rail? (no)," writes South Tampa Realtor Bill Dallas, asking, then answering, his own question. "Do we want to pay for it? (no) Let's grow responsibly. Rose has the experience and skills to lead Tampa."

Or shoot, just read the whole grizzly story here.

Rose seems okay - somewhat pragmatic, experienced, nice, all that.  But the proximity to a guy who seems to have a raging philosophy against urban rail development in Hillsborough County is a bit unnerving at this point, this very hard-earned state of the day where nearly every major political player is behind rail or at least behind giving Hillsborough County residents a choice.  Plus, she was pretty vocal in that initial BOCC rail-progress conniption fit last February.  What now?  In waltzes Mr. Too-Far-Right loony trying to do a Facebook favor for his preferred candidate.  Poor Tampa - and if really innocent, poor Rose!

Tommy Duncan spreads the news.

Dallas (link to his personal FB profile) has evidently removed any of the anti-rail sentiment from the group's pitch page cited by TampaBay.com, which is perhaps more unnerving in its own creepy right, though a pretty wise move these days in Hillsborough County where, if you want your pony to win, you don't call attention to any reservations about helping develop transportation choice.  But even without them, it's clear from his support page for Rose that some of the commentator members are lost-cause conservatives who would never support even a fiscally conservative rail plan the way many local, honest, republicans do.  Then again, Tommy Duncan is apparently a member of the group.  He crept in to the comment section and dropped a link to the TampaBay.com article like a bomb, a subtle message not quite favoring or dissing.  Just lettin' the other group members "know".  Way to go Tommy!

It might not be fair, folks, but it all might just be too questionable enough now to just say no to Rose as mayor unless she comes out pretty quick swinging for rail.  And heck, one supposes she's done that in the TampaBay.com article.  But, now, at the very least, the whole careening message by a guy who I get the sense thinks Rush Limbaugh was right, is a disadvantage for her in any hypothetical race that any opponent will surely ride.