Rep. Josie Tomkow, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins all earned solid recognition on the list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians, each having either shaped policy or ruffled The Process, even as two of the three — Tomkow and Simpson — aren’t often thought of as Tampa Bay area politicians, strictly speaking. Simpson and Tomkow both live on the periphery of the region, but affect it nonetheless.
For Tomkow, her recent election upset reminded that even the state’s most powerful can be vulnerable in the wrong political winds, but that strength perseveres to the next round. Simpson,
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