 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Candidate's postcard paints a rosy picture
By Times staff writers "I am humbled," writes Ken Hagan, in a card sent last week to absentee voters, "by the support of over 13,000 primary election voters who chose me to be their nominee to the Board of Hillsborough County Commissioners for District 2." Actually, Hagan won the nomination with 5,593 votes. He said 13,000 is the number of households represented by the 16,543 people who voted in the Republican primary. Of those voters, 34 percent picked Hagan. The postcard also describes Hagan holding management jobs in the insurance, securities and consulting industries. His actual record is more humble. After graduating from college, Hagan became a salesman, and later sales manager, for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Tampa. The office became one of the nation's highest-performing sellers of insurance policies for nurses until state investigators accused MetLife of fraudulently marketing the policies as investments rather than insurance. Hagan and at least 85 other MetLife employees faced administrative charges of fraud. Hagan's case was dropped seven months later because the state could not locate a key witness. MetLife fired him in April 1994. Until January 2001, Hagan was self-employed. He obtained a master's degree and traded stocks at home, he said. Last week's postcard describes this as "Stock & Investments Manager, Securities Industry." "You're trading a portfolio," explained Hagan, 35. "I did it for my family and myself and several friends. That's not the least bit misleading." "I am 100 percent backed by the Christian Coalition," Brian Blair told a crowd in Lutz last week. "If you don't believe in a higher authority, come talk to me later and I'll give you a little sermon." Blair, the Republican nominee for County Commission District 7, reminded the crowd at the Lutz Community Center that he's a former professional wrestler. "I often see politicians wrestling with issues, and I figured they needed a little help," he said. But Blair also used his night in Lutz to tar his opponent, County Commissioner Pat Frank, (who didn't attend) as "ultra-liberal." Asked to define the term, Blair said Frank voted as a state senator to weaken the death penalty, legalize marijuana and allow "racist smut" on local public-access television. Further, Frank has been called a "social progressive," Blair said. "Progressive is a synonym for liberal." The questioner turned out to be Democrat Mary Figg, a former member of the Florida House. "I served with Pat Frank," Figg said, "and your information is incorrect."
-- Political Junkie is an occasional column on this year's election season. Got a tip? Bill Varian can be reached at 226-3387 or varian@sptimes.com and David Karp can be reached at 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com. Staff writer Bill Coats contributed to this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times North of Tampa |
