There are four people on the April 13 ballot for two city council seats in New Port Richey: incumbents Matt Murphy and Mike Peters and challengers Kate Connolly and Rachel Giuliani-Hagenbaugh. 

Spectrum Bay News 9 spoke with all four candidates this week. In the first of a two-part series, we focus on the two challengers.

Rachel Giuliani-Hagenbaugh says she represents the “everyday resident” whose voice is too often not heard in New Port Richey city government.

“I’m not the type of person to sit on the sidelines and just complain,” she said. “I put my name out there simply because there was no one else doing it. And this insight and perspective of the everyday resident is needed to help buffer the differences that’s happening in our government. And everything starts local.”

The 35-year-old is the daughter of a U.S. Marine. Born in New York City, Giuliani-Hagenbaugh lived at various times in her life in Florida, California, Texas and North Carolina. Her formative years were spent in Pasco County, and she moved back to New Port Richey after meeting her husband a decade ago in Naples.

Giuliani-Hagenbaugh is of Ecuadorian and Colombian descent and says she believes that, if elected, she would become the first woman of color to serve on the board.

She lives with several health issues, which is why she strongly opposed the city banning medical cannabis dispensaries (there are three such dispensaries in the city now).

“With everything that I’ve seen with pills devastating our area, I’m very adamant about not using medication in that regard,” she said.

In speaking with voters, Giuliani-Hagenbaugh says one of the biggest issues she’s heard is that residents are looking for resources from the city, but there’s no one to help them find those resources.

“There’s grants for homeowners. There’s grants for businesses. There’s access to all these things, but no one knows about it,” she said.

In this nonpartisan race, Giuliani-Hagenbaugh shuns labels. If you’re going to call her anything, she says call her a humanitarian. 

“All the things that I’ve ever advocated for are for the betterment of humanity,” she said. “When it comes to food. When it comes to safety. When it comes to access to natural medicines. When it comes to equality for all walks of life.”

Kate Connolly has been involved in politics for much of her professional life since graduating from USF. She currently works at One Brand Marketing and is a part-time student at Stetson Law School. In her previous stint at One Brand Marketing, she served as the political director, managing media accounts for what she says were “thousands of campaigns.”

“I think it’s really important that we show some more diversity to our community,” she said. “I think we’re evolving very quickly, and it’s also important that we have different perspectives and a new voice at the table and more voices at the table to make sure that we get things done, but we also do it smartly.”

A native of North Miami Beach, she moved back to the area four years ago from Hillsborough County. She grew up in Tarpon Springs and the greater New Port Richey area.

Among her top priorities is to see parts of the city outside of the downtown area prosper, particularly in the U.S. 19 area, which she calls a “very big conundrum” due to a lack of proper development.

“Plazas were developed right off the main highway and lots of surface parking lots and not necessarily an inviting community at all – no town centers, no place for anybody to really congregate without crossing dangerous (U.S.) 19 and coming to downtown,” she said, adding that there are now plans to open community centers and connect the plazas to the neighborhood.

Like Giuliani-Hagenbaugh, Connolly would be a pioneer of sorts if elected, as she is openly LGBTQ.  During the Pasco Pride Facebook Live candidate forum last weekend, Connolly said she thought at one point in her life that she would never be open about her sexual orientation, but now is proud that she has done so.

“I realized that … by embracing myself I could truly do more for the community and do more for myself,” which she says is one of the main messages of her campaign. “Whether it’s me or any others, I think it’s important for people to step up if they want to get involved, whatever their background may be.”

This is the first of a two-part series. Spectrum Bay News 9 will feature interviews with the other two candidates on the ballot – current councilmembers Matt Murphy and Mike Peters – in an upcoming segment.