 Nuccio was immensely popular among the Latin residents of Tampa but was equally disliked by others in Tampa's "anglo" community.During his 1959 reelection campaign, challenger Julian Lane depicted him as an old-fashioned machine-era politician and easily defeated the incumbent with a pledge of "honest government" and "sound business practices".Racial unrest and problems with flooding along the Hillsborough River had damaged Lane's popularity by 1963, when he sought a second term.