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AMY WIMMER SCHWARBThree Republicans seeking office leave no rocks unturned; they hire an investigator to check their pasts. The GOP has already had one scandal too many.
Some Citrus Republicans are opening wide their closet doors, trying to assure voters that no skeletons are lurking inside.
County Commission candidates Dennis Damato and Paul Pilny and School Board candidate John Kolley each hired a Brooksville-based private investigator to peer into the public records of their private lives, looking for any information that might give voters pause.
The result? No bankruptcies. No arrests. In short, according to the private investigator's reports, nothing to hide.
A Times review of Florida Department of Law Enforcement records and cases in federal court, including bankruptcy court, also turned up no blemishes.
"I hope it establishes a precedent, not just here, but all the way up and down the line," said Pilny, 59, who is running for the District 5 County Commission seat now held by Josh Wooten, who is seeking re-election. "I would hate to support somebody and find out that person had a criminal background."
The men's reports, compiled by investigator Earl P. Harrison of Brooksville, read similarly and end with the same, fairly boring line: "No derogatory information was developed."
The candidates said they decided to fully declare their histories because of problems that arose two years ago when a candidate for Citrus County School Board withdrew from the race just weeks before Election Day after the Times discovered an indecent exposure arrest on his record.
Don Bates had been arrested in 1994 after he was accused of masturbating in the parking lot of Crystal River Mall and inviting another man to watch. Bates went through treatment after his arrest and arranged to have the record expunged, but the Crystal River Police Department had the incident report on file.
In addition to stepping out of the race for the School Board District 1 seat, Bates also resigned from the Citrus County Republican Executive Committee.
"I wanted to reassure people that I am who I say I am," said Damato, 51, who is running for the County Commission District 1 seat now held by Republican Roger Batchelor, who is seeking re-election.
Damato said he wanted potential supporters to know that he wouldn't embarrass them with unexpected wrinkles in his past. "People know you from your business background and stuff, but they really don't know you," he said.
Kolley added that he went through more vigilant background checks as a teacher than he would as a candidate for public office.
"Anybody coming into the district as a teacher would have to have a background check and fingerprint," said Kolley, 58, who is running for the District 4 School Board seat now held by Patience Nave, who is not running for re-election. "Being a former teacher in the school system, I've had one before. I wanted to have one just so the people would know my background."
Wes Stow, chairman of the county's Republican Executive Committee, said the party had discussed doing background checks for all the candidates, but is leaving that decision in the hands of individual candidates.
"I think some of the candidates have gotten background investigations done so that everybody's comfortable," Stow said. "If anybody has any skeletons in their closet, they shouldn't run for public office."
- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.