TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Uphill Battle Begins For Democratic Incumbents

ADVERTISEMENT

By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Now the real fight begins.

As expected, John Russell dispensed with two other Democratic challengers in Tuesday's primary race for the District 5 U.S House seat currently held by Ginny Brown-Waite, and Fred Taylor easily beat an articulate college student for the chance to wrest the state Senate's District 11 seat occupied by Mike Fasano.

Now Russell and Taylor must overcome challenges many orders of magnitude greater than that.

Brown-Waite is a two-term incumbent with a massive campaign war chest. Fasano, a politician for the last 14 years who has held his current seat since 2002, also has campaign finance money to burn and much influence.

Both have the backing of a party eager to show voters aren't as upset with Republicans as Democrats say they are.

But Russell and Taylor said Tuesday they plan to exploit what they see as weaknesses of their respective opponents: their voting records, the current state of the economy and their donors.

Russell spent no time during the run-up to Tuesday's primary talking about his opponents and instead criticized Brown-Waite's voting record and what he characterizes as her lack of any substantive legislation.

"She better be ready to explain herself," said Russell, a 52-year-old nurse practitioner from Dade City. "I think it's difficult to point to anything she's done that's had an appreciable, positive impact on the American people."

He said Brown-Waite's call for an investigation into the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office after last week's arrest of a Mexican national in rape cases is another example of the Congresswoman "grandstanding and creating a distraction from her lack of effort."

Russell said the list of donors to Brown-Waite's campaigns, from pharmaceutical companies to the banking and insurance industry, should cause voters to suspect her loyalties.

Brown-Waite has made strides in passing beneficial legislation and has a history of bucking special interests of her party, her chief of staff Pete Meachum said.

He noted Brown-Waite voted for HR 6, an energy bill that, in part, took royalties from oil companies, Meachum said.

Brown-Waite has made progress on a national catastrophic fund, helping clear a bill through the House, Meachum said. And most recently, she co-authored a legislation to expand the GI bill and ensure education benefits to returning veterans.

"People said she wouldn't be able to get it done and she did," Meachum said.

The 2006 race between the two candidates was none too cordial. He said Brown-Waite plans to "steer clear of Russell's tantrums" this time around.

Fasano won't respond to "attacks"

Taylor, a 60-year-old business broker from New Port Richey, said his campaign is researching Fasano's voting record. He said the state of the state - high homeowner insurance rates and low education rankings - are an indictment of the current Legislature's performance.

"To my mind it's not negative campaigning, it's campaigning on a record out there for everyone to see," Taylor said. "We're going to show exactly how he's voted the last 14 years and bring it to the attention of the public, because we don't think the public knows how he's voting."

Taylor said voters should be troubled by the high number of contributions to Fasano from the insurance and banking industries.

Fasano said Wednesday he had no doubt the race with Taylor would be "very competitive" and said he planned to run "a very positive campaign."

"When you lack the funds as he does, I understand and appreciate the direction his campaign has to take, and that's being on the attack every day," Fasano said. "I don't intend to respond to every one of his attacks."

Fasano has pointed out legislation he's filed that angered insurance companies, such as the effort to stop the practice of cherry-picking, or offering auto and other policies but refusing to cover homes.

"If (Taylor) truly believes I have a good relationship with the insurance industry, he hasn't been reading your newspaper," Fasano said.

Party support?

The Florida Democratic Party is "excited" about Taylor's candidacy, party spokesman Eric Jotkoff said.

Jotkoff called Taylor, a Vietnam veteran, "a man who has served his party with honor who will fight for the district and not the special interests. He declined to offer specifics about whether the party would continue the kind of financial support it gave Taylor in the primary.

Jotkoff didn't use the word "excited" to describe the party's feelings about Russell, who has had a few scrapes with party leaders over the years.

"The Florida Democratic Party will support its candidates," Jotkoff said.

Russell said it's in his nature to ask questions "of people who are not used to having asked of them," even if it's his own party leadership.

He said he doesn't expect the state party to throw gobs of money at him, but contends the party does need do to a better job of "getting out the vote" and helping draw attention to his platform featuring a withdrawal from Iraq, a single payer health care plan and a sustainable energy policy.

"I need people to help me get in there so I can do what I say I'm going to do," he said.

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

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT