By Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
The Plant City Observer has profiled candidates for the several local and state elections. Here, we spotlight Joy Green, Al Higginbotham and Mark Nash, candidates for Hillsborough County Commission District 4.
JOY GREEN
As a nonpartisan candidate, Joy Green already has set herself apart from the other candidates.
And she hopes her extensive community service involvement sets her even further apart. Green has been involved with Aglow International, a worldwide Christian outreach program. Working her way up to regional director in charge of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina projects, Green leads about 3,000 women to drive grassroots movements and community events.
In the United States, she has mentored and tutored children through her Homework Help program, volunteers at Trinity Café feeding the homeless and partnered with a teenager who initiated a shoe drive, “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” to send 5,000 shoes for the earthquake victims of Haiti.
Her work with the shoe drive led her to Haiti two separate times to deliver care packages and shoes and work with the community. Green also has been to Nigeria, using her first career experience as a dental hygienist to teach dental health at childcare centers.
“One of my passions is for us to break down cultural barriers,” Green said. “I think you have to get out of the box and physically approach the people and their culture.”
Green carries this same thought into the political arena. The Michigan native has lived in Hillsborough County for 25 years and sees the areas she can improve upon if elected as District 4 Hillsborough County commissioner.
“Our citizens are our most important asset,” Green said. “If we’re hearing from the community, we have to be out in the community, on the streets talking to people about the most pressing issues and then prioritizing them.”
Green wanted to run for District 4 to bring a change to the community and pull the mayor’s office, city council, commission and people together.
“On a county level, we should be working together on a nonpartisan level,” Green said. “We can do so much more when we work together and not have to answer to a party. It’s about the people.”
Green wants to improve several areas through what she calls “The Green Solution” — reflect, connect and reply.
She wants to see greater collaboration between governing bodies, community organizations and the citizens to solve specific problems and issues. To create more jobs, Green wants to attract more businesses to the community by making sure Hillsborough is a desirable place to live with excellent infrastructure, creative tools and models for education and public safety by creating more after school and children’s programs.
To do this, she would like to pull together people and businesses that have plans that can be transferred to government.
Green has visited Plant City many times during her campaign run and sees it as a unique town that can serve as a model for other similar communities by devising a marketing plan that would advertise Plant City as a great town for shopping, eating, festivals and antiquing.
“I’ve been very touched by the entrepreneurial spirit that is here and their desire to be on the map,” Green said. “I want people to see it as a quality town with people who care and an atmosphere that is tourist friendly.”
Green sees herself as a “bridge builder” and would love to see a nonpartisan candidate take the seat.
“Action is key for those who have a passion,” Green said. “I come with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective.”
AL HIGGINBOTHAM
It was a fateful day Jan. 20, 1995, for Republican Al Higginbotham. The Hillsborough County commissioner was on a hunting trip in Alabama, when a tree fell across his left shoulder, breaking seven vertebra, resulting in a spinal injury.
Higginbotham was told he would never walk again.
But the persistent outdoorsman wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. After a bone transplant surgery and hours of physical therapy, Higginbotham was out of a wheelchair and using a walker. Now, the commissioner uses hand canes to walk.
“The whole experience was very hard on my wife and the kids,” Higginbotham said. “Something like this could tear many families apart, but it has brought us closer. I’m in better physical condition now than I was before my injury.”
Since then, Higginbotham has climbed Grinnell Glacier in Montana in 1997. In August, Higginbotham completed a three-day mountain climb in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountain range, after training for 20 months and losing 25 pounds.
“Some guys like to play tennis or golf,” Higginbotham said. “I like being outdoors. I really have a passion for it.”
During his recovery, Higginbotham had time on his hands. He wrote a book about his experience, titled, “By Faith … I’m Still Standing,” with a forward written by former Gov. Jeb Bush. He traveled around the United States to share his story and promote his book.
Soon, he became tired of traveling and began getting involved with the Republican Party, something he says has made a big impact on his life.
“I saw people who wanted to get things solved, and I saw the party as something that could offer solutions,” Higginbotham said.
The fourth-generation Floridian also became involved in the State Farmers Market. He has served as a Congressional aide in Washington, D.C., and later as an executive assistant to the Florida treasurer and insurance commissioner.
From 2003 to 2006, he served as chairman of the Hillsborough County Republican Party. In 2006, he was elected as District 4 Hillsborough County commissioner. During his time as commissioner, he helped to create more private-sector jobs in any year in the last decade.
Higginbotham is also proud on his efforts for constituent outreach. He has worked hard to create a responsive office that gets replies to the people.
“We don’t want to be a revolving door,” Higginbotham said. “We want to answer the phones; we want to connect.”
He has also founded an International Outreach program two years ago, which the Tampa Chamber of Commerce is looking to staff. He has connected with influential players in 29 countries to foster economic development. During the Strawberry Festival, eight international representatives were invited to take a tour of Plant City’s economic hotspots to feel out potential business deals.
“Our economy cannot be based solely on construction and building,” Higginbotham said.
In Plant City, he helped the creation of a new courthouse and continues to work on the preservation of Bealsville. This summer, he voted to add a historical marker to State Road 60 in Beaslville.
“I listen, I work, I pay attention to detail,” Higginbotham said. “I have been building a relationship with the people for the past six years.”
MARK NASH
The son of a country boy and city girl, Democrat Mark Nash grew up in Brandon decades ago, when it was still fairly rural. Working in a steel mill in high school, Nash also picked tomatoes for his mother, who was a school teacher, to can. He picked strawberries, as well.
“There’s something wrong with you if you don’t like strawberries,” Nash said, laughing.
The Hillsborough County Commission District 4 candidate finds himself relating to Plant City residents who are familiar with country charm and a more rural lifestyle.
“These are proud people and people who have been farming for generations,” Nash said. “It makes me smile when I see the agriculture industry, because it is so vital to the history of our community and the current state of the community.”
After graduating from Brandon High School, Nash went on to Florida State University and spent the majority of his professional career with the Gillette Company, managing various business accounts across the eastern half of the country.
In 1997, Nash returned to Hillsborough County to manage the Gillette Shaving business at Florida-based Publix Supermarkets. Upon his return, he was shocked to see the state of Brandon. It was crowded, fractured and disjointed.
Nash then began to focus on his community.
In 2005, Nash attended a Tampa/Hillsborough County Human Rights Council award ceremony, where the council recognized non-profits in the community. He was impressed by the council’s professionalism and dedication. He is now the president of the Tampa/Hillsborough County Human Rights Council.
“It inspired me to give back to my community,” Nash said.
Nash also serves on the community roundtable of Brandon board, and for his 50th birthday on Nov. 11, 2011, Nash threw a party that raised $13,000 for eight local charities, including the Emergency Care Help Organization and I Am Hope Cafe in Brandon.
Besides community, Nash also turned his eye toward politics upon moving back to the state. He helped get Kevin Beckner elected to the Hillsborough County Commission in 2008 and became his aide.
Nash likened this experience to the “Wizard of Oz.” As he delved deeper into politics, he pulled back the curtain of manipulation, just like Dorothy revealed the so-called great and powerful Oz to be an ordinary, old man.
“It’s become painfully obvious that we have been making poor growth management decisions and water and transportations management decisions,”
Nash said about the current state of the eastern part of the county.
Nash believes the commission needs to pull together to make better decisions.
“You don’t drive on Republican roads or stop at Democrat stoplights,” Nash said.
For Plant City, Nash wants to further current projects in the making.
“I want to continue revitalization like Midtown, and I hope it sees through its conclusion,” Nash said. “It’s a good opportunity for growth and jobs.”
Nash is careful to pave over farmland and doesn’t want to create the transportation and logistic nightmare that exists in Brandon.
“The agriculture industry feeds the community, the county and the state,” Nash said. “I want to continue to keep that in the foreground in Plant City and am willing to collaborate with the city to nurture it.”
Running against Republican incumbent Al Higginbotham and no-party candidate Joy Green, Nash is running on a campaign that stresses job growth, changes in transportation and growth management.