Election 2004

Senate hopefuls follow party line on Iraq

Among candidates for the open U.S. Senate seat, Republicans back the effort; Democrats would have voted against it.

By STEVE BOUSQUET and ANITA KUMAR
Published July 26, 2004

Mike Domke and John Kurpinski represent a divided country's view of the war in Iraq.

Domke, 39, of Largo, approved of the war at first but now says it was a mistake. "We didn't do it right when we were there," Domke said.

Kurpinski, 59, of Tarpon Springs, supported the war at the start and hasn't wavered. The United States, he said, should stay in Iraq "as long as it takes."

The war will be one of the biggest factors in deciding how they vote for president and the U.S. Senate, both men say.

But, like a lot of voters, Domke and Kurpinski haven't paid much attention to the eight Republicans and four Democrats running to replace retiring Democrat Sen. Bob Graham.

As registered independents, they won't have a role in choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees.

With the exception of Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, a Democrat who favors establishing a timetable to bring the troops home soon, the candidates offer little to primary voters to distinguish themselves from each other on the war.

After the nominees are chosen in the Aug. 31 primary, the choice for voters like Domke and Kurpinski will be clearer.

The Republican nominee will strongly support the war, while the Democrat will say the president has mishandled it.

Expressing support for the war and President Bush is standard procedure for Republicans.

In separate interviews, Republicans Bill McCollum, Mel Martinez and Johnnie Byrd used the identical phrase - "stay the course" - to describe their stand on the Iraq war.

Doug Gallagher is the only Republican candidate to even hint at wavering in his support for the war.

"I might not have voted for it had I known all that I know now," Gallagher told the St. Petersburg Times editorial board recently.

Later, Gallagher said he sees a conflict in the information that was available at the time the United States went to war, such as whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He also said the United States has to be "continually vigilant" about the use of pre-emptive force against another country.

"In my gut, and in my heart, I think the Iraqi people are much better off without a murderous dictator who took out 300,000 of his countrymen," said Gallagher, a Coral Gables businessman.

McCollum, a former member of Congress from suburban Orlando and the GOP's Senate nominee in 2002, has made national security a central theme of his latest campaign. He said he favors sending more troops to Iraq if the White House and Pentagon ask for them.

"There's no going back," McCollum told the Associated Press. "The worst thing in the world would be to cut and run."

At a forum in Key Biscayne last month, Martinez strongly supported the president and disagreed with the contention that public opinion is turning against the war.

"I think the president was right," said Martinez, Bush's former housing secretary. "I think the world was better off without Saddam being there."

Byrd, the state House speaker from Plant City, casts Iraq as part of "a global war between good and evil."

"We won the military victory," Byrd said. "We ousted the world's leading terrorist enabler...The most important thing we can do in the Middle East is to install democratic traditions."

Byrd also lets audiences know that his own daughter, Melane Anne, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, is training to be a jet pilot.

"She, too, may find herself in harm's way," Byrd said in prepared remarks for a recent speech in Clearwater. "So you see, the Byrd family is all in on the war on terrorism."

Sonya March, a St. Petersburg lawyer whose bid for the Republican nomination has drawn little attention, cited her background as a Gulf War veteran and an Air Force test pilot for six years before she sustained a knee injury. If elected, she said, she would go to Iraq and meet with troops. By having a strong presence in Iraq, March said, the United States is "stopping the advancement of terrorism."

The Democratic Senate candidates agreed on most issues until a week ago when Penelas unexpectedly shifted. Adopting an antiwar stance for the first time, he called for a complete pullout of all U.S. troops at a time to be determined.

U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Hollywood is the only candidate who was in Congress and voted for the war resolution. Neither he nor Penelas would vote for it now knowing what they know.

Former state education commissioner Betty Castor of Tampa refused to answer whether she would vote for it now, saying there are too many "what ifs."

All three want President Bush to seek a international alliance, and they have faulted the president for a "go it alone" strategy.

Both Deutsch and Penelas oppose the $87-billion war appropriation. Castor favors it, saying it provided needed equipment for troops on the ground.

Deutsch said he doesn't want troops to leave now because it would make the country a haven for terrorists. "I think ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away," he said.

He said the United States should let NATO lead the rebuilding effort like it did in Kosovo. He said the United States should not lead the effort after a military conflict ends.

"This has become an American problem," he said. "The United States has been occupiers. This is an American operation right now, which is extraordinary problematic. We need to be part of a multilateral effort."

Castor is opposed to withdrawing troops immediately. She says the United States should stabilize Iraq but doesn't have a timetable. She said there already are "positive signs that the new government is making steps in the right direction."

Penelas' support for a troop pullout is the biggest contrast with everyone else running for Senate.

"This administration has systematically misled the nation on Iraq," Penelas said at a July 15 forum in Tallahassee. "Americans are learning the war represents one of the worst miscalculations in American military and political history. That's why most Americans feel we are not safer today against terrorism than we were before the war."

Penelas, trailing Castor and Deutsch in most public opinion polls, called himself "the antiwar candidate" before a recent trip to Tampa.

He said his position has evolved and that he is calling for the troops to come home based on what he has heard and read, including the 9/11 report.

"How can you not come to this conclusion?" Penelas asked. "We were duped and given false information. That's the reality of it. My position is very much in line with mainstream America."

- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 25, 2004, 23:46:08]