Former Tampa Reporter to Run for Office

Former WFTS Investigative Reporter Alan Cohn knows he is giving up his news reporter life with his next move. 

On Thursday, Cohn will announce that he is running for political office.   

"You can't do what I'm doing and go back to covering a beat," said Cohn, 50. "But I would like to do this more than any job I can think of."

Cohan is choosing to run as a Democrat against U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross to represent Florida's 15th Congressional district. 

He made a name as an investigative reporter over three years at WFTS, revealing an undisclosed vacation home owned by the wife of then-Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman.

But WFTS let him go in June 2012 with no public explanation; Cohn said then and now he doesn't know why they ended his employment. He created a company, AMC Productions, which has developed promotional videos for the state's tourism office and Tampa's Chamber of Commerce.

He's hoping some of the notoriety he gained as a TV reporter will help in his first bid for public office. "We're all frustrated by the gridlock in Washington," said Cohn, who lives in New Tampa with his wife, Patricia, and two teenage children. "That's not who we are."

H/T Tampa Bay Times