Early voting started Thursday in the Tampa City Council runoff race for District 7. The district seat, vacated by Lisa Montelione, serves parts of North Tampa and New Tampa. 

  • Early voting starts for Tampa City Council runoff race for District 7
  • Lawyer Luis Viera and Dr. Jim Davison running for district seat
  • The next councilman will be elected Dec. 6

Lawyer Luis Viera and Dr. Jim Davison are on the ballot. Both have different ideas of what actions they'd take if elected to be on the council.

"I want to create a community redevelopment area, the eighth one, for the university area so we can have that infrastructure in the university area that we need," said Viera."There's a lot of intellectual capital in that area and yet we don't have the physical infrastructure to match that capital."

"What we'd like to do is set up a system where every neighborhood in Tampa is able to show how much they are paying in taxes and fees and how much they're getting back in services and infrastructure and projects," Davison said. "I'm looking around now and I see over the last several years, the neighborhoods in North Tampa have been forgotten." 

Neither Davison nor Viera have held public office before, but both have spent years in public service. The council race has been fairly cordial until there was a discussion on the secession of New Tampa. 

Viera said he's totally against any talk about New Tampa breaking away from the city of Tampa and he doesn't want to use it as leverage in negotiations.

"If you're going to have negotiations with the city to have more investments, more improvements within North Tampa, you can't have an adversarial role against the city," Viera said.

While Davison said he's against secession, he said it's up to the people in his district to decide.

"It's a leverage that New Tampa has against the City of Tampa to get their fair share of improvements and taxes and services back," Davison said

The contrast in opinions over secession led to intense moments during a debate Wednesday.

"Next thing you know we're going to hear Jim say 'Hey listen, I'm going to build a wall and make South Tampa pay for it," Viera said during the debate. 

Without a microphone, Davison responded. Davison said his opponent was trying to compare him to President-elect Donald Trump and this was not the presidential election.

By Thursday, Viera appeared to dismiss the statement. "It was a mere joke," he said. "This is a nonpartisan election."

"I regret that my opponent brought it up," Davison said. "I believe we should be looking at the issues."

However, with all the talk of secession, Tampa's mayor took an unusual step and made an endorsement in the council race Thursday. He's supporting Viera. 

Now, both candidates are trying to put the controversy aside.

"The most important thing is for people to get out and vote," Viera said. 

They're hoping voters will look at all the issues when they pick the next councilman to fight for District 7. 

So far more than 3 thousand people have voted in the District 7 race. The next councilman will be elected Tuesday, December 6th.