Election 2004

Penelas comes out strongly against war

His attack on the president's policy is about the only new twist at a Senate candidates' forum.

By ANITA KUMAR
Published July 31, 2004

ST. PETERSBURG - Lagging in the polls, U.S. Senate candidate Alex Penelas went on the attack Friday against the Bush administration's "misguided" war in Iraq.

Penelas, Miami-Dade County mayor, announced a plan to fight the war on terrorism that includes withdrawing troops from Iraq, restoring relationships with America's allies and adopting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

"We now know with certainity that the reasons the president gave us for going to war to begin with were false," Penelas said to a round of applause at a forum with other Democratic Senate candidates. "We trusted our president...but instead of continuing the work against Al-Qaida the Bush administration took a detour, a detour to Baghdad."

Penelas, third in the polls and fundraising, spent the past two weeks emphasizing his new stance on the Iraq war, touting it as one reason voters should support him during the Aug. 31 Democratic primary.

"Enough is enough," Penelas said. "It's time to stop justifying the unjustifiable. It's time to fight the real war on terrorism. It's time to make America safe here at home."

The other two main Democratic candidates, former education commissioner Betty Castor of Tampa and U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Hollywood, support keeping troops in Iraq until the country is rebuilt.

More than 300 people turned out to a joint meeting of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club and the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa at the Radisson Hotel on Roosevelt Boulevard. The candidates fielded questions about Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, the Equal Rights Amendment and sending jobs overseas.

Castor and Deutsch spent most of their time talking about their backgrounds and delivering their standard stump speeches about education, the economy and health care. They broke little new ground and offered few differences on national and international policy.

Polls show Castor leads Deutsch and Penelas, with about a fourth of Democratic voters still undecided a month before the primary. Four Democrats and eight Republicans are seeking to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Graham.

Deutsch stressed his "day job" as a congressman, and said he was trying to overturn the president's ban on stem cell research and change the prescription drug bill that forbids Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for bulk discounts.

"That bill is a paradigm of what not to do," Deutsch said. "It's literally a bunch of drunken sailors running the government."

Castor, former president of the University of South Florida, had the most supporters at the luncheon, including local teachers and politicians. She talked of the environment and military but stressed her passion, education. "I think that's the key to a strong economy," she said.

Deutsch, known for a combative style, criticized EMILY's List, a national political fundraising group supporting Castor, for discriminating against men and taking an active role in the race. He said he has been endorsed in the past by Planned Parenthood but said he would never win an endorsement from EMILY's list because he is a man.

EMILY's list, which supports Democratic women who support abortion rights, begins TV ads Monday for Castor in Orlando, Gainesville and Jacksonville, Deutsch said. The group said it will talk about ads Monday and declined further comment.

[Last modified July 30, 2004, 23:52:09]