Kyc: Commissioner of agriculture

It could be the most schizophrenic agency in Florida. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs is supposed to promote farming, yet also protect consumers. It oversees state forests and watches for medflies but also regulates dance studios and telemarketers.

THE JOB
The secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services oversees a massive agency that is supposed to safeguard consumers from scams and support Florida's agricultural economy. It inspects and tests food, helps farmers with marketing and promotion and regulates a variety of industries ranging from telemarketing to pawnshops. It also oversees state forests. The commissioner also is a member of the Florida Cabinet, voting on a wide variety of statewide issues. The position pays $119,414 a year.

Democrats have a similarly schizophrenic choice as they consider the three candidates who want to challenge Republican incumbent Charlie Bronson in November.

Andrew "Dr. Andy" Michaud III and David C. Nelson tout their agricultural credentials. Michaud, a veterinarian, has worked on cattle and horses. Nelson drove tractors and picked avocados before becoming a middle school teacher.

The third candidate, Mary L. Barley emphasizes consumer protection. A developer's widow turned environmental activist, she says Bronson has failed to spend as much time and money fighting flim-flam artists as he has on promoting agriculture.

Michaud, on the other hand, says that "common sense would not put consumer protection with the agriculture commissioner." He won't lobby to break consumer protection off to form a separate agency, he said, but he wouldn't stand in the way if someone else wanted to make that change.

Michaud has spent months hitting small-town campaign events, and blasted Barley as a rich dilettante with no real knowledge of Florida's back roads: "Has Mary Barley been to these places? No, she's probably been over them in her Learjet."

"I've been all over the state of Florida," countered Barley, an avid angler who lives in Islamorada and maintains a hunting camp near Melbourne. As for Michaud, she said, "What does he know about consumers?"

Barley, named one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Planet" in 1999 for her environmental activism, is a lifelong Republican who switched parties to run because she says the GOP no longer represents her values. She has contributed more than $20,000 each in the past six years to the Democratic and Republican parties. In 1996 she led an unsuccessful drive to persuade voters to impose a penny-per-pound tax on sugar to clean up the Everglades.

Michaud, who operates a small animal hospital in Winter Park, ran as a Democrat in a losing bid for the state House two years ago.

Michaud and Barley agree on one thing: Bronson's effort to wipe out citrus canker by cutting down thousands of backyard trees tramples private property rights. But Nelson disagrees, saying, "They're trying to do their job."

In fact Nelson, a first-time candidate who calls himself "Joe Novice," says of Bronson: "I don't have any major complaints."