Key West mayor to run for county commission seat

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Key West Mayor Craig Cates gave his final “state of the city” address last week but he has already decided that he wants to stay in public office after term limits force him out in November, saying he intends to run for the Monroe County Commission in 2020.

“Yes,” Cates said before the Feb. 21 city commission meeting when asked if he was going to run for one of the two Key West District seats on the Board of County Commissioners. Asked when he planned to officially file to run, he said, “It’s a long way off. I’m going to finish my [Key West mayoral] term and then take some time off.”

Cates said he intends to run for the Key West District seat currently held by Heather Carruthers although the other Key West county commission seat, occupied by Danny Kolhage, is also up for election in 2020.

Carruthers is serving her third term as county commissioner, which included two one-year stints as county mayor in 2011 and 2014. She has been rumored to be considering running for a statewide political position in 2020, possibly state representative. The current state representative, Holly Raschein, will term out in 2020.

However, Carruthers has not publicly thrown her hat into the state political ring. When contacted by Konk Life, she said she is more focused on producing workforce and affordable housing post-Hurricane Irma as opposed to campaigning.

“No, I haven’t decided yet. I’m not up until 2020. I feel like I have a couple of months, if not a year, to decide that,” Carruthers said.

If Carruthers decides to run for reelection to the county commission, as opposed to a state race, Cates said he would have to decide then whether to challenge her. Acknowledging it might be a tough race between the two seasoned and popular politicians, Cates said, “I’ll have to see how my health is. I’m 65. If I’d known I was going to last this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

Joking aside, Cates gave an emotional state of the city address, his ninth since running for political office in 2009 and winning the city’s top elected post in his first attempt. He described the “wonderful things” accomplished since he and city commissioners helped create a vision plan in 2009, most notably restoring an old school building into the new city hall, starting construction on Truman Waterfront Park, building a new fire station and parking lot on Angela Street, and building a veteran’s memorial garden in Bayview Park. And all of this, Cates pointed out, “without borrowing any money,” instead depending on tax dollars and grants to fund the projects.

“We came up with the ideas, worked through the details, saved our money for the projects and made them a reality,” he said.

Looking back at his tenure, Cates said that crime has gone down in each of the past nine years. Also, the city is cleaner since it expanded its public works department. All around, he said in his address, “we are still moving in a positive direction.”

Cates also acknowledged there are challenges ahead, including long term issues such as the lack of affordable housing, trying to keep taxes low and continuing to support local businesses. Hurricane Irma added an enormous recovery challenge, as well. As a result, the November election is particularly important, Cates said.

“We will come to a crossroads this year. We will be electing a new mayor and there’s a possibility of three new commissioners. This will be the first new mayor in nine years so this will be a very important election for the future of Key West,” he said, adding, “Everyone needs to be involved, whether it’s running for office, staying informed and asking questions of the candidates.”

The race to replace Cates is shaping up to be highly contested. Nine candidates have declared and more candidates are possible. Running are Rick Brown, Bill Foley, Robert Goodreau, Danny Hughes, Mitchell Jones, Kate Miano, Darrin Smith, Mark Songer, and Key West City Commissioner Margaret Romero. Two other early candidates, David Bethune and Wayne Coulter, have withdrawn from the race.

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