FL Senate campaign full of name-calling, negative ads; Jeb Bush in the middle of it

[seafan]

Nasty name-calling? It's what Jeb does best.



Senate campaign full of name-calling, negative ads

By RON WORD
September 14, 2009

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.

.....

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.

.....

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.
In response, former Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw have done television commercials on Thrasher's behalf.
"Now liberal personal injury lawyers are attacking John with ads that purposefully distort his service and character, all because John Thrasher had the courage to help me rein in frivolous lawsuits some lawyers depend on. What they are doing is wrong," Bush said in television ads.

.....

According to Jeb Bush and John Thrasher, the only *good lawyers* are those serving at the pleasure of Big Developers/Big Business.


By the way, this is the same big developer lobbyist/attorney John Thrasher who led the charge to trick people who have signed a petition supporting a constitutional amendment that would give local residents control over growth-plan changes in their areas, into revoking their signatures.


Developers try to mislead signers of 2008 "Florida Hometown Democracy" ballot petition , September 21, 2007
(And Jeb Bush's pal John Thrasher, lawyer and lobbyist for St. Joe Co., and Associated Industries of Florida was the *chief misleader*.)






So now, Thrasher wants to re-enter state politics with Jeb Bush greasing the skids.



Jeb Bush and his ilk are like the plague. And Florida needs some strong medicine.



Also a part of this nasty campaign is this:

A mysterious racially tinged mailer received by district voters remains shrouded in mystery. It neither supports nor bashes any of the candidates.

It shows photos of President Barack Obama, Black Panther radicals from the 1960s, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and the liberal activist groups ACORN and moveon.org with an exhortation to vote. It was put out by the Conservative Voters' Coalition, a previously unknown group whose leader is a 27-year-old clothing store employee, Erin Di Cesare, a registered Democrat.

"Armed thugs may try to scare you away from the voting booth. Do not let intimidation and threats of violence against you keep you from exercising your constitutional right to vote."

These people just drip with hatred.

[seafan]

1. Nasty Florida Senate Race Ends As Polls Open (September 15)

Anything to get Jeb Bush off the TV.


Nasty Senate Race Ends As Polls Open



Florida Senate District 8

Polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Watch your votes count throughout the evening
on WJXT and News4Jax.com.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Four Republican are competing in Tuesday's primary for a Florida Senate seat vacated by the death of Sen. Jim King.

Casual voters -- even TV viewers who don't live in the district that stretches along the coast from Nassau to Volusia counties -- may think only two men are in the race. That's because vicious, negative television advertising has flooded the airwaves in this campaign after a court invalidated regulations against funding by secretive political groups.

Former City Council Member Art Graham, former state representative and school board member Stan Jordan, former House speaker John Thrasher, and political activist Dan Quiggle are running in Tuesday's state Senate District 8 special primary election.

No Democrat entered the race, but since there are write-in candidates qualified in the Oct. 6 general election, this is a closed, Republican-only primary.

.....

The Senate district includes 156,130 registered Republicans, but Duval County elections officials expect only 8 to 12 percent of voters will turn out. It is estimated the special election will coast between $550,000 and $600,000, although some of that cost will be reimbursed by the state.

.....

May Thrasher be soundly defeated.

[seafan]

2. Guess who is winning.

http://www.news4jax.com/politics/20926514/detail.html