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Hernando Today

Candidate's Silence Puzzles Greens

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: August 6, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Sarah Roman is a Green Party candidate in the State House 44 race to unseat Spring Hill Republican Rob Schenck.
Roman, who just turned 22 on Monday and who has no political experience, is also a green candidate.
But even the greenest of political novices should figure that media attention and support from the party are two of the most effective tools a candidate should use to win, Green Party officials say.
After numerous attempts during the last several weeks, Roman finally returned a phone call Tuesday to Hernando Today, leaving a voicemail message. Roman said on the message that she preferred to respond to media queries through e-mail, and left an e-mail address.
Another phone message and an e-mail went unanswered Tuesday.
More confounding, however, is that Roman hasn't corresponded with the Florida Green Party, said spokeswoman Julia Aires. The party has sent certified mail to Roman with a questionnaire and request to get in touch. No response.
"It's puzzling," Aires said. "It really is difficult to understand how a candidate motivated to run for office does not want any attention to campaign or win votes or to have an opportunity to make their voice heard."
Jennifer Sullivan, a lead organizer and spokeswoman for the Hernando County Green Party, also has left phone messages and even gone hunting for Roman at her last known address and at the Salvation Army in Port Richey, where she supposedly volunteers.
"It's illogical," Sullivan said. "If you were running for something, wouldn't you want publicity?"
"What concerns me," Sullivan said, "is we're running a candidate we don't know."
Roman has intelligence and social skills, according to news stories about her scholastic performance published in recent years.
She was one of five teenagers to earn a scholarship from the Pasco Pediatric in 2003 while a student at Ridgewood High School in New Port Richey. She had a 3.6 grade-point average, according to a story published in The Pasco Tribune about the scholarship winners in October 2003.
Roman said then that her mother died when Roman was 4 and that she'd had to find ways to make money since the age of 12 to help her father pay the bills. She lived with her grandparents for a while, and also spent time in a homeless shelter, the story states. When her father had "problems," Roman went to live with a friend's family in the summer of 2007.
Roman said then that education "is the only way I know I'll succeed in life."
"I've never had a stable family," she said. "Getting an education was the only way I know where I'll be able to have a stable family."
Last year, Roman was selected as a student ambassador for Pasco-Hernando Community College's west campus in New Port Richey, according to a story that ran in The Pasco Tribune last October. Roman was pursuing her associate's degree at PHCC after transferring from the University of Central Florida, and planned to pursue a degree in public relations or education.
When she filed in June, Roman listed the Port Richey address of Allan and Regina Weilbacker. Roman was a friend of the couple's daughter, and she stayed with the Weilbackers during high school, Allan Weilbacker said Tuesday.
But Weilbacker said Roman hadn't lived there for "a couple of years." He said she lives in Holiday now, but he didn't have her new address.

Greens are suspicious

Roman isn't Schenck's only challenger. Brooksville Democrat Joseph Puglia, a former New York City police officer and airline pilot who owns a solid waste disposal company, also is making a first-time bid for office.
There are rumblings that Roman may be a ringer for the Republican Party or other interests who want to see Schenck win a second term. Some Democrats, the theory goes, would vote for the Green Party candidate instead, costing Puglia votes that could be critical in a close race.
It's one of five state House and Senate races that feature Green Party candidates drawing similar speculation.
Each is a potentially close match-up between the Republican and Democratic candidate. The Green candidates are newcomers who had no prior affiliation with the Greens and who paid the filing fee at the last minute. Two were slow to respond to queries by the party, and three, including Roman, still haven't contacted the party.
Roman had no party affiliation until she switched to the Green Party before paying the nearly $2,000 qualifying fee to run.
Sullivan, the local Greens spokeswoman, said she wouldn't put it past special interests intent on keeping a Republican-controlled Legislature.
"I think they'll do anything and everything," she said. "To run a candidate for $2,000 is no big deal. There's a lot of wealth in this state. To get five candidates in a state like Florida, that's a bargain."
"If it's true, that's pretty sad they would go to that length," Puglia said. But he added he doesn't have "any concerns at all" about losing votes to Roman.
"I feel confident in my positions and my views, and the people will decide who they think is the best candidate to represent them in Tallahassee," he said.
A Florida Democratic Party spokesman said the party had no comment on the matter.
Schenck called the conspiracy theory "ridiculous." Katie Gordon, a spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, also dismissed the notion.
"We don't know these candidates, either," Gordon said.
Aires, the state Greens spokeswoman, said the party is eager to get its platform out there, but the political newcomers have to be proactive to make that happen.
"If they're legitimate candidates," Aires said, "we want to help them."

Tampa Tribune researcher Michael Messano contributed to this report.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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