Campaign full of name-calling, negative ads
JACKSONVILLE (AP) – The campaign to fill the Florida Senate seat vacated by the death of Sen. Jim King has turned nasty with biting, vicious television advertising and racially tinged mailers because of a court ruling that invalidated regulations against secretive political groups.
A federal judge’s recent ruling tossing out Florida electioneering laws is allowing special interest groups to freely spend without disclosing who they represent or who contributed to their cause. The groups all have names aimed to make them appealing to voters in Tuesday’s four-candidate Republican primary. There are no Democratic candidates, making the winner an almost certain victor in the Oct. 6 runoff against three write-in candidates. King died July 26 of pancreatic cancer.
Conservative Citizens for Justice, for example, is running an ad called, “Enough,” that compares former state House Speaker John Thrasher to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who lied when he traveled to Argentina to meet his mistress, and ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell an appointment to the U.S. Senate. It claims Thrasher would do the same and mentions two ethics charges against him. Thrasher, a lobbyist and power broker, and Dan Quiggle, a St. Augustine businessman and anti-tax crusader, have been the targets of most of the negative campaign ads.
“We deserve better. Demand an end to scandal and corruption,” the ad says.
Thrasher violated ethics rules against lobbying by legislators in 1993 when he appeared before a committee of the state Board of Medicine acting as a paid representative of the Florida Medical Association. The second violation occurred in 2001, when Thrasher represented the University of Miami before lawmakers within two years of his leaving office.
Thrasher admitted fault and was admonished for the first violation and fined $500 for the second.
Thrasher, who served as speaker from 1998 to 2000, said the negative ads “distort me and distort my record” and believes they are coming from “personal injury lawyers.”
“They fear me going back to the Florida Senate. It’s about their interests and not the people’s interests,” said Thrasher, who aspires to a Senate leadership post.
Another ad is called “Map of John Thrasher’s Tax Waste,” which was paid for by a Jacksonville-based group called Stop Tax Waste. It depicts a cartoon airplane flying around Florida to support subsidies for the Miami Dolphins’ stadium and then to Texas to shop for a desk.