Jim Davis sheds calm on smear ads bankrolled by Big Sugar (FL)

[seafan]

Cross-posted from the Florida forum because of this important state primary election on Tuesday, widely considered to be a bellwether for 2008.



Photographs by Chris O’Meara/Associated Press, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/us/04florida.html?ex=1157515200&en=05a290a6122ae852&ei=5087%0A">NYT


Davis sheds calm on smear ads

By Dara Kam, S.V. Date
September 4, 2006

RIVIERA BEACH — Two days before the gubernatorial Democratic primary, candidate Jim Davis finally got mad.

A $4 million smear campaign largely paid for by U.S. Sugar Corp. and its subsidiaries may have done more to help Davis than harm him.
One misleading ad implies that Davis voted against a bill to hike the minimum wage. He didn't. Another slammed him for missing a vote on a resolution condemning Hezbollah attacks on Israel. Davis was campaigning in Florida and is endorsed by U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler and Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, who are Jewish.

On Sunday, working his way through Palm Beach County and winding up in Jacksonville, Davis shed his soft-spoken demeanor and assumed the swagger of a boxer bouncing back from the ropes.
Davis smacked the podium at a Delray Beach Democratic luncheon in exasperation over the ads and repeated his contention about U.S. Sugar.

"A Republican company is trying to buy an election. A Democratic primary election."

His emotional outburst persuaded at least a handful of voters who said they had originally intended to vote for opponent Rod Smith, whose campaign has close ties to U.S. Sugar.
"What changed my vote is his dynamics and his presence, and the whole atmosphere and the man. Today was a pivotal day for me," said Ruth Henry, 85, a Lakes of Delray resident.

But earlier in the day at New Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, one of three black churches Davis visited in Riviera Beach, Bishop Thomas Masters put Davis on the spot about his 1990 vote to deny restitution to two wrongly convicted black men, Wilbert Lee and Freddie Pitts. They spent nine years on Death Row before Gov. Reuben Askew pardoned them in 1975.

snip

''I heard there was room here for sinners,'' Davis, a Tampa congressman, said while coming close to an apology for his 1990 vote in the Florida Legislature. ``I may have made a mistake. I am going to go back and look at what I did. If I made a mistake, I will be the first one to admit it.''

"I sat there for days and I listened to the evidence and I just did not hear the evidence I expected to hear. I have to live with that vote. A lot of people ask me if I made a mistake. I may have made a mistake. I don't know yet. I have to go back and read the evidence. If I made a mistake I'll be the first to admit it. The easiest thing I could do is stand here now and tell you what you want to hear but I can't. If I did make a mistake, I'll admit it," said Davis, who is a lawyer.

Honesty is a refreshing quality these days. Good luck on Tuesday, Jim Davis.

(All emphasis added.)

[durrrty libby]

1. There is no clear choice for me

The ads just confuse people. They yap about their opponent rather

than saying what they will do

I haven't heard any of them talk about health care

The pugs are worse. They are Jeb Bush Republicans or

Ronald Reagan Republicans, and no content.

I probably will have to hold my nose and vote for the dem with the best chance against
Crist.

I was leaning toward Smith because he mentioned paper trail voting.

:hurts: :shrug:

[saltpoint]

2. Either pictured Dem beats the hell out of either pictured Rethug.

Gallagher is strictly a Dark Ages gas bag. Charlie Crist is a sniveling, power-mad scheister.

I hope the Harris Senate candidacy depresses the GOP voter turn-out in November and one of our Democratic guys can take the gubernatorial race.

[madfloridian]

3. I am tired of Davis throwing the big sugar stuff...

I am sick of it. We already voted last week. We voted for Smith.

Davis will win, though. He has the party structure and power behind him all the way. More than you know.

He would be a good governor, but he is DLC/New Dem all the way, that is where his loyalties are and have been.

He will win the primary. Crist will win the general, I fear. He's a good man also.

[durrrty libby]

4. I agree. I think Crist will win it all

He has the name recognition

Aw crap...we will end up with a baby Jeb

[madfloridian]

5. I don't think Crist is much like Jeb in many ways.

I would rather have a Democrat, but I doubt it yet.