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ANITA KUMARDemocratic Senate candidate Betty Castor criticizes Mel Martinez's campaign tactics and questions his character.
TAMPA - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Betty Castor went on the offensive against her Republican opponent Monday, criticizing Mel Martinez in a new TV ad, disputing his statements about whether more police officers are needed and questioning the independence of a former federal agent who criticized her.
In the new ad, Castor quotes Florida newspaper editorials calling Martinez "unprincipled and nasty" and said his "tactics raise questions about his character and leadership." It says he uses "bigotry and hatred for political gain."
At the end, the narrator asks, "Can we believe anything he says?"
The ad, similar to one Castor ran during the Democratic primary, also portrays her as the heir to retiring Democratic Sen. Bob Graham by describing her as moderate and bipartisan. The ad is running in Miami, Tampa, Gainesville and Tallahassee.
Castor's campaign also seized on recent comments by Martinez about a federal program to pay for police officers.
Democrats have criticized President Bush for proposing deep cuts to a program that provides grants for cities to hire police officers. Republicans say the proposal would give local governments more flexibility and does not represent a spending cut.
Martinez told WFLA-TV in Tampa Saturday that some antiterror measures are not linked to personnel: "We don't need necessarily more men and women on the force."
Castor's campaign enlisted the help of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who called Martinez "dead, flat wrong on this." Bush proposed cutting the program from $482-million to $97-million next year.
Castor's campaign also released documents casting doubt on William West, a former INS agent who appears in a Martinez ad criticizing Castor, former University of South Florida president, for her role in the Sami Al-Arian case.
West told reporters last week he is politically independent.
But Castor campaign spokesman Dan McLaughlin questioned West's independence, pointing to work he did for a Washington research center.
West is a consultant for the Investigative Project, which is run by journalist Steve Emerson, who produced the 1994 PBS documentary Jihad in America, that first accused Al-Arian, then a USF professor, of raising money for the Islamic Jihad.
The conservative-leaning Smith Richardson Foundation gave the Investigative Project $600,000 to examine post-9/11 terrorist cases. Foundation members and their families have given at least $100,000 to Republican causes since 2000. McLaughlin says that shows West is not the political independent he claims.
Emerson rejected that. "There's no political agenda," Emerson said. "This shows a certain level of desperation."