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Cabinet hopeful nettles agribusiness
By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor ISLAMORADA -- She's 5 feet tall and looks waifish enough to be lifted off the ground by a mild gust off Florida Bay. She sports silver rings on her pedicured toes, and beams when Princessa, her fluffy little white dog, hops onto her lap. Meet the widow making some of Florida's most powerful corporations mighty nervous. She is Mary Barley, proof that once in a while Florida politics can imitate a Carl Hiaasen novel. The plot in brief: A millionaire developer-turned environmental crusader fights Big Sugar on behalf of the Everglades with a gusto seldom seen in the environmental movement. He dies in a plane crash on the way to look at Everglades documents. His widow, suspicious about whether foul play was involved, takes up her husband's fight, his life's passion. She soon evolves from timid, bereaved widow to a nationally recognized force for the environment. Time magazine names her "hero for the planet" for her work trying to save the Everglades from pollution. But she's not done. Election Day 2002 creeps closer, and she watches the race for commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, a Cabinet post that for nearly a century has been dedicated to protecting Florida's huge agriculture industry. The appointed incumbent, Charles Bronson, a fifth-generation Florida rancher and staunch ally of agricultural interests, looks like he'll walk into the job against a couple of obscure Democratic challengers. No, she says. Mary Barley steps into the race at the last minute, changing parties from Republican to Democrat. Florida, she says, needs someone to stand up not just for agriculture, but for Florida's consumers, taxpayers and nature. "This is a department that's mandated to protect consumers, and they haven't considered the consumer in most of their decisions," the first-time candidate said last week from her Florida Keys home overlooking Florida Bay. "I think it's time for a change." Four years ago, state leaders brought together what they said were some of the best minds in Florida to examine how the state Constitution might be updated. They decided to ask voters to shrink Florida's six-person Cabinet to two, making agriculture commissioner and other offices appointed jobs rather than elected. The Constitution Revision Commission heard a flood of protests from farming interests worried their chief advocate would lose power. The commission backed off. Next year, the commissioner of agriculture and consumer services remains on the Cabinet, along with the attorney general and chief financial officer. Some agriculture advocates are starting to wonder whether they should have been more wary about what they wished for. Agribusiness may dominate the campaign contributions for the post, but the vast majority of Florida voters, like Barley, have no idea of the difference between alfalfa and timothy hay. They live in cities and suburbs and see a lot more at stake in consumer issues than farm issues. Now comes Mary Barley, a smart, passionate, and wealthy candidate who owes nothing to Florida's second biggest industry and believes some segments are downright damaging to the state. "The agriculture industry is flabbergasted that the Democratic Party would try to get her in this race," said Bronson, the Republican who was appointed agriculture commissioner in 2001. "They're coming together tighter than I've ever seen them in my life, because they see her as anti-agriculture." The commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services has influence over pesticide use on farms, about thousands of acres of sugar crops leased from the state, and over how farms manage their runoff. The agency's consumer services cover everything from regulating travel agencies to solicitors and car shops. "This may be the race that agriculture has always feared: someone who is not from agriculture but someone who will play to the consumer service side of the job," said Rick Dantzler, a former Democratic lawmaker who months ago dropped out of the race for agriculture commissioner. Indeed, the buzz started even before Barley's surprise entry in the race July 26. Farming interests already are talking about pumping money into the campaign to thwart Barley. "Extreme environmentalist expected to qualify for commissioner of Ag's race today," warned the e-mail to members of the Florida Citrus Mutual growers coalition that morning. "This would be a detriment to all of agriculture." Robert Coker of U.S. Sugar Corp. released a curt statement: "Serious candidates for Agriculture Commissioner need to be well educated on the issues and qualified to assume the responsibilities of the position. This is not an appropriate place for a single-issue candidate like Barley to continue a personal vendetta." She repeatedly stressed last week that she is neither anti-agriculture nor consumed with a single issue. Her goal is working for all Floridians, not one interest group. With a big smile, she shrugged off the likelihood of a well-financed campaign against her. "You've got to spend a lot to beat somebody who's on the right side and doing the right thing," Barley said. "We'll see if they're willing to do that." How formidable Barley's candidacy will be is uncertain. She has barely started organizing a campaign. She knows precious few details about the 3,500-employee agency. Incumbent Commissioner Bronson has raised $833,000 for his campaign, and Barley still faces two Democrats, Andy Michaud and David Nelson, in the Sept. 10 primary. "Instead of challenging her to a debate, I'd like to challenge her to a milk-off at the dairy farm," Michaud said. But nobody is writing her off. Well-connected, she has the potential to bring major money flowing into the Florida Democratic Party on her behalf or attract independent spending. Among her closest friends is Paul Tudor Jones, a New York commodities trader, who has pumped millions into campaigns on behalf of the Everglades. She reports her net worth at $2.4-million, but said she is still considering whether she'll use her own money or seek public matching money, which would preclude her financing her own campaign. Painting her as a wild-eyed extremist is not as simple as critics might hope. Barley is a longtime Republican businesswoman, who says she is passionate about protecting taxpayers, avoiding over-regulation and protecting property rights. She complains that the agency has trampled on people's property by cutting down thousands of residential citrus trees for a "junk science" effort to fight citrus canker. What she lacks in agriculture experience, she says, she would make up for by surrounding herself with expert administrators. "To regard her as a single-issue candidate, I don't think would work well at all. She's going to be one hell of a candidate," said attorney Thom Rumberger, a longtime friend who has worked with her and the late George Barley for years on environmental issues. "You're going to see that this is not just another lady from the Everglades fighting the rest of the world. You're going to see a a very, very bright lady who's so involved with consumers, so involved with taxpayers' rights, and on and on." Bronson, 52, is an amiable bear of a man with an old Florida drawl and agricultural roots that go back to the 17th century. A millionaire cattle rancher from Satellite Beach, he lives and breathes agriculture but says no one can fairly accuse him of being anti-consumer. He ticks off examples: After Sept. 11, his office imposed $86,000 in fines on 53 gas stations accused of price gouging. The agency shut down a Pinellas County dance studio accused of taking advantage of elderly customers. The agency is going after auto repair ripoffs, and roadside vendors of unsafe food. It's helping consumers avoid phone solicitors. Bronson ran for agriculture commissioner unsuccessfully in 1986 and 1990, and was elected to the state Senate in 1994. Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him agriculture commissioner 14 months ago, after Commissioner Bob Crawford moved to the Florida Department of Citrus. When he was among the 40 state senators, the Florida League of Conservation Voters consistently ranked Bronson 39th or 40th, but Bronson said he always listened to all sides and has received awards or appreciation plaques from the Nature Conservancy and other groups. "It has to be a practical common-sense approach. We can't just use these wild ideas and say we'll do it whatever it costs," he said. He says he's not worried about Barley. Some of his enthusiastic supporters think he should be. "She'll be a significant candidate," said state Sen. Jack Latvala, a Palm Harbor Republican widely hailed by environmentalists. "It will be a major race before it's done." Until the 1995 plane crash, George Barley was the in-your-face crusader for the Everglades. Mary was the one running the business. After his death, she and Paul Tudor Jones made a graveside pledge to keep fighting George Barley's battle. "I just couldn't let his dream, and all the work he'd done, just die," she said. "It was a hurtful time, and it was also a scary time. You had all these people that were depending on you." Friends questioned the cause of the plane crash, and Barley said she hired top investigators to look for foul play. They found no signs. In the meantime, her friends in the environmental movement saw her emerge as a force in her own right. In 1996, she led an effort to persuade voters to impose a penny-per-pound tax on sugar with proceeds going to clean up the Everglades. Environmentalists spent about $15-million (about two-thirds of it from Jones), and sugar growers spent at least $23-million and defeated the measure. Voters passed another initiative making those who pollute the Everglades primarily responsible for cleanup costs, but lawmakers never implemented the measure. Barley says the campaign was a "total victory" because it brought worldwide attention to the plight of the Everglades and helped lead to Congress approving an $8-billion plan to revive the Everglades. Her critics see her as an uncompromising zealot incapable of working with others who don't see things exactly her way. "With Mary, it became an obsession to avenge the very unfortunate death of her husband," said Latvala, a Bronson supporter. Barley dismisses that. When asked what George Barley would think of her latest battle, she laughed hard. "He'd say, 'Go get 'em Mary. And win.' " -- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report. Adam C. Smith can be reached at (727) 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com.
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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